Having a live chance in a $1 million race should be pure excitement for a young Hunter Valley trainer like Cassandra Stummer.
However, for the mother of three from Muswellbrook, Shine Your Light's lead-up to Saturday's Golden Gift (1100m) at Rosehill has been "a nice little distraction" after a frightening and challenging three weeks.
Stummer's youngest child, 18-month-old son Ace, was airlifted to Westmead Hospital in Sydney with burns to his chest and stomach, 20 per cent of his body, after pulling a cup of hot tea onto himself.
After four days in hospital, Ace was allowed to return home. He has avoided surgery but has been taken back to Westmead Hospital at least once a week since for check-ups.
Stummer, who pre-trains horses, has eight racing and rides all her own trackwork, said the accident was a terrifying ordeal.
"We are actually travelling back from Sydney now," Stummer said on Thursday.
"We are coming back from a check-up and a change of dressing. This is the second time we've been down to Sydney this week. It's been a tough couple of weeks.
"It's horrible to see them like that, but he's OK.
"He doesn't need surgery, which is good. They were worried about that at the beginning."
Ace is on anti-biotics and has been measured up for a compression suit to wear to minimise the scarring.
"It's been a long couple of weeks," Stummer said.
"But it's going to be a long process of healing."
The testing time at home has come amid an exciting period for the stable, which Stummer manages with the help of partner and injured jockey Daniel Northey.
Filly Shine Your Light debuted at Randwick in the Kirkham Plate (1000m) on October 22 as a rank outsider in the two-year-old race but was strong late after a rails run to finish third, just a length and a half from the winner, Barber.
The effort was enough to earn a start in the two-year-old feature, the Golden Gift.
Shine Your Light, owned by Scone trainer John Ramsey, was a $16 chance for the race with Bet365 after drawing well in gate two. Reece Jones, a good friend of Stummer and Northey, has the ride.
It is the second big race starter for Stummer, who has been training for about two years. Ramsey also owns Cupid's Kiss, which was 16th in the group 1 Queensland Oaks for Stummer in June.
"It's very exciting," she said. "Ramsey has been good enough to give us another one and this one has a bit more ability.
"There's a lack of opportunities in the country, so we just had to throw her in the deep end. "It was either that or chuck her in the paddock, but after her trial [win at Scone], she pulled up well, so we thought we'd have a crack at these races.
"She's always shown us a lot."
Shine Your Light rallied over the final 100m to grab third last start and Stummer expected her to appreciate the extra distance on Saturday.
"She does take a while to wind up and I think the 1100 will suit her a lot better than the 1000, but it's exciting," she said.
"She has shown speed at home out of the gates, but in her trial and at her first start, she got back a bit.
"Hopefully she'll be a little bit closer, but we won't interrupt her pattern too much. She'll race where she's capable.
"She has pulled up well and she's earned her spot.
"I think she will get further, once she develops a bit more. But she's got a good attitude, she's not a hot filly and hopefully she can go on with it."
She was hopeful of another strong result in what shapes as an open race.
"Half the field was in the Kirkham but there's a couple of unknowns this time, first starters," she said.
"And there's a bit of a rap on Gai's horse [Summer Loving]. They might be a couple from Melbourne as well but I don't think anything stands out."
