Leading Victorian trainer Peter Moody can't help but get excited when he talks about the return of his gun mare Typhoon Tracy in Saturday's Group One weight-for-age Orr Stakes (1400 metres) at Caulfield.
While Typhoon Tracy might never have won a race outside her of own age group and sex, the four-year-old mare is already a multiple Group One winner and with seven wins and two placings from just 10 starts and with nearly $1.2 million worth of prizemoney already in the bank could be the next superstar of the Australian turf.
It's a measure of the respect that the Coolmore Classic and Myer Classic winner has already gained that she is a $1.75 favourite to make a winning return on Saturday despite the 10-horse field containing six Group One winners including the past two Melbourne Cup winners in Viewed and Shocking - who like Typhoon Tracy will kick off their autumn campaigns on Saturday.
But while Viewed and Shocking are on the Australian Cup pathway - the culmination of Melbourne's Festival of Racing on Super Saturday at Flemington on March 6 - Moody has so many potential options for Typhoon Tracy that at this stage he has only committed to running her in the Group One Futurity Stakes over 1600 metres back at Caulfield on February 27, beyond the Orr.
However one thing is certain: Typhoon Tracy won't be stepping up to the 2000 metres of the $1 million Australian Cup and instead will be saved for races between 1200 metres and 1600 metres.
"I think we counted up to 14 Group One races for her between 1200 and 1600 metres at either set weights and penalties, weight-for-age, handicap or fillies and mares races between now and the first week of July (that she could run in)," Moody said at Caulfield on Thursday.
"So there are a lot of options for her but the first two (the Orr and the Futurity) are at her home track and at 1400 metres and a mile (1600 metres) which look ideal trips for her."
While Typhoon Tracy's only failures to date were at weight-for-age against the older horses - as she will run in on Saturday - when she ran third in the Liston, second in the Makybe Diva and eighth in the Underwood Stakes last spring, Moody said she had legitimate excuses each time.
"The three times she did step outside her own age and sex, the circumstances weren't quite right," he said.
"We were training her for the Cox Plate, that was her ultimate goal (last spring) and she went into those races a little bit softer than I would like to think she is going into Saturday's race where we have targeted the (shorter races of the) Orr and the Futurity and we haven't thought about her program beyond that."
Moody's only concern on Saturday is that Typhoon Tracy could be left a sitting duck for a swooper if there is plenty of pace in the race - as she was first-up in the Group Two Liston Stakes over the same distance at Caulfield last spring when she finished third after being grabbed right on the line by Predatory Pricer and Whobegotyou.
"You just don't want to see her in a situation where she has to do the donkey work carting the field up to a tearaway leader like she had to do here first-up in the spring when she just got nutted on the line," he said.
"Her last win at Flemington (in the spring when she won the Group One Myer Classic for fillies and mares over 1600 metres) she was happy to sit off a solid pace and then put six lengths on them in the space of 50 yards."
While Moody believes Typhoon Tracy is potentially one of the best horses he has trained - although given Victoria's No.1 trainer this season also has the exciting Black Caviar in his ranks it is debatable whether she is even the best horse in his stable at present - he is not convinced about taking her overseas should she dominate the upcoming autumn carnivals in Melbourne and Sydney as expected.
"I think she would be ideally suited in the Golden Jubilee, 1200 metres up the hill at Ascot (in England) - that would be a nice race for her - and then there are races like the big mile race in Hong Kong (in December)," Moody said.
"But there are a lot of options for her here."
"Our racing is better and our prizemoney is better than most parts of the world and there are too many good options at home to seriously consider those (overseas) options for her at this point in time."