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Waverley racehorse Glory Days stormed home from the back of the pack to finish third in the 3200m $2 million Sydney Cup at Royal Randwick in Australia on Saturday.
Glory Days made a move at about the 1000 metre mark to be midfield with 600 to go and then really let down out wide for the final 300 to finish strongly for third.
So impressive was the performance by the Wanganui Cup and Auckland Cup winner that co-owner Brent McAree has his eyes on a bigger prize.
"Fingers crossed, it might be a leg into the Melbourne Cup. That's sort of everyone's dream," McAree said.
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Advertise with NZME."She's had a huge campaign and to still pull that off and finish third was marvellous. It was a bloody good run, there's no doubt about that."
Glory Days' campaign began back on August 18 when the mare narrowly won a 1400m race on a heavy track at the Waverley races.
Her record this campaign has been outstanding, winning seven of 12 races and placing twice, including this most recent result in Sydney.
The Chris Waller trained, Jay Ford ridden Shraaoh won the race ahead of Vengeur Masque ridden by Damien Oliver and trained by Michael Moroney.
Kiwi horse Rondinella trained by Roger James and ridden by Sam Clipperton finished fourth.
McAree said his wife Sue, co-owners Grant and Paddi Thurlow, trainer Bill Thurlow and jockey Corey Brown were all pleased with the performance of Glory Days.
"When she came up on them at the corner, Corey Brown said she just started going through the gears and he said he thought he had it," he said.
"But those other two were going just as fast at the end of it. They were game and they travelled really well. They're good horses, the whole lot of them in that race."
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Advertise with NZME.McAree was shown a Snapchat video of Glory Days with her head down in a bucket at 9pm in Sydney on Saturday night, eating well after her big race.
He said she would fly home on Monday before going out for a bit of a spell while trainer Thurlow makes plans for her future.