Canberra trainer Nick Olive has waited 10 months to have Single Gaze right to race and is confident his group one winning mare is ready to recapture her best form starting in the Millie Fox Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.
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Single Gaze won the Arrowfield Classic at Kembla Grange and Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill before falling in the Australian Oaks last year but was not injured.
"That was a heavy tumble, she was lucky to come through it the way she did. I got her back in the spring and she was only 90 per cent and we did not want her to race like that," Olive said. "It wouldn't have been fair to her because she always gives 100 per cent.
"I decided to stop and let her have a longer break, which was hard, but we are seeing the benefit of it now. She has been great since we had her back."
Gundagai men David Tout and Martin Hay own 50 per cent of Single Gaze, while she was bred by Jamie Middleton at Harden’s Redbank North.
Single Gaze has had two barrier trials and Kathy O'Hara has made the trip to Canberra for both of them. First was a win then she finished alongside gun sprinter Fell Swoop at Canberra on February 3.
"She is grown up now and I'm very happy with how she has felt in the trials," O'Hara said. "I'm really looking forward to Saturday because she is very fresh and she always runs well first-up.
"She has drawn well and even under top weight she will be there at the end."
Single Gaze has been around the mark throughout her career, a placegetter in the the Magic Millions at two and three and runner-up in a Black Opal, but it was last autumn where she shone, starting by splitting Ghisoni and Stay With Me in the Surround Stakes before her two wins.
"She really hit her straps in that last preparation but she is more mature now," Olive said. "She is ready to go to the races and I think she is going to improve with the run, but she has never disappointed us resuming.
"I couldn't be happier with her at the moment and I think she is in for a big preparation."
O'Hara has been booked for autumn for Single Gaze because of her great association with the mare, although Single Gaze was the reason she spent a couple of months on the sidelines after the Oaks fall.
"She has a great record on her. If you take out the runs where we had someone else on her [Single Gaze's] record just gets better," Olive said.
"She knows her, which is important, and has always had a lot of faith in her."
