Parkes spent the final half of his apprenticeship with Belsham and the Rayners used to leg him up on quiet old horses when he was 10 or 11 and learning the game.
The cameo was from none other than Sir Patrick Hogan himself, the most successful New Zealand breeder of all time and studmaster of Cambridge Stud.
The story began slightly before Whanganui racing buff Ian "Fish" Hadfield bred Start Wondering.
Gudsell and Shaun O'Leary of Who Shot Thebarman fame bought a 10 percent share in Hogan's then unraced yearling Eighth Wonder, part of the elite Eight Carot family.
Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, Eighth Wonder was injured and never made the race track.
Gudsell and O'Leary approached Sir Patrick with a suggestion they stand the horse at stud.
In typical Sir Patrick style he agreed to give the horse to the pair one one condition.
"He told us not to stuff it up," Gudsell recalled.
Gudsell approached Jeff Bliss in Taranaki who agreed to stand Eighth Wonder at stud.
Hadfield stepped in and sent several mares, including Roseanbar whom he raced from Belsham's stable.
She produced Start Wondering who was bought by Gudsell and won four for Belsham.
He should he was a class act prompting Gudsell to send him to Sydney and expat Kiwi Chris Waller where he won three before suffering a bleeding attack.
He returned to Whanganui for his mandatory three month stand down and since Belsham had since retired from training, the horse was sent to the Rayner's stable.
"He is such a joy to train and has class stamped all over him. He won the Railway like a very good horse," Evan Rayner said.
Parkes also really rates the galloper.
"They ran 1.08.8 for the 1200m and he had plenty left in the tank. He will be very hard to beat in te Telegraph or the Thorndon Mile if that's the way they want to go," Parkes said.
JJ Rayner loves all horses, but has a special affinity for Start Wondering and was a proper cry baby at Ellerslie on New Year's Day as she shed tears of joy following the win.
For Belsham the win emotional, but not a surprise.
"I've always known he was a very good horse and there is a lot of Whanganui connections around him," Belsham said.
"It was Evan's Group One win. His first was Raywood Lass in the 1980 George Adams Mile at Trentham and I rode her. And then there is Start Wondering's grand dam Assessarose raced by Ian Hadfield, she was my first winner as a solo trainer."
For Gudsell it was justification for "doing all my shopping at Cambridge Stud,"
"I have a lot of people to thank and I appreciate all their input, but I am deeply grateful to Sir Patrick Hogan," Gudsell said.
"He came all the way down to congratulate us after the Railway and he even remembered what condition he set. He said 'well, you didn't stuff it up'. He is a very knowledgeable man and that's why I do all my (horse) shopping at Cambridge Stud," Gudsell said.
"This result, though is great for Whanganui. It just goes to show there are some very talented horse people in the River City."
