KEY POINTS:
Stu Manning is delighted Katy Keen is feeling considerably better than he is.
Manning's back is far from 100 per cent after catching it the wrong way when mucking out his stables this week.
But his discomfort was quickly forgotten later that afternoon when he watched Katy Keen
wind up her $2 million Kelt Capital Stakes preparation with a very easy win at Tuesday's Paeroa barrier trials.
And Manning says if Katy Keen is within two lengths of the lead 200m out in the Kelt, he'll be feeling no back pain at all.
Nor if he gets the result he says he doesn't even dare to think about.
Stu Manning is no stranger to producing winners. He had a topliner in Syndrome back longer than he cares to remember now and in the past two or three years he has a strike rate with the small team he prepares on the Tauranga Harbour foreshore that any trainer would envy.
But he admits the pressure of producing a live chance into a $2 million race is getting to him a little as tomorrow looms.
"I nearly fainted when she got up in the St Leger at Trentham ... I don't know how I'll be if we get some luck on Saturday."
To use an Australianism, Katy Keen is the forgotten horse of this huge race.
She has won eight of her past nine races, the missing link being when sixth over an unsuitable 1400m at Tauranga in June.
It was over a distance she has never won at and she was not expected to be competitive.
Horsemen going into a race like this dream of having their horse better than at any previous stage of their career - Manning knows he has achieved that.
The hitout she missed coming into tomorrow's weight-for-age test has ceased to be an issue.
"She absolutely breezed in at the trials on Tuesday - she won it in a canter.
"I know they weren't group company horses, but she was simply too fast for them.
"She was impressive. I thought so anyway."
If Manning could change one factor it would be retaining his regular rider - favourite Princess Coup's jockey Opie Bosson.
"I want to make it quite clear I am delighted to have Vinny Colgan as my rider, I think Vinny is a very good big-race jockey," he said yesterday. "But it's always ideal if you can have the same jockey in races like this as you had in the lead-ups.
"Opie knows every hair in this mare's body and that's always a help."
Manning said he will be providing Colgan with few instructions. "Vinny knows what he's doing. I don't know exactly where she'll be in running, probably mid-field. I only know where I want to see her at the finish."
There would be no better pain remedy for a bad back than the $1.15 million Kelt Capital Stakes winner's cheque.