The running joke was always how many listed winners Steven O'Dea could notch before his first group winner. The tally just fell shy of double figures.
"I had a bit of a run there where I trained plenty of listed winners, but wasn't quite able to break it for a group winner so for him to be my first group winner [was huge]," said O'Dea, who prepared nine black type winners before Sir Moments' Queensland Guineas victory at group 2 level last year.
"It takes you to the next level in the eyes of a lot of people. He's definitely been a big help for me in establishing myself [in Brisbane]. It's always hard getting new clients, but he's definitely been a big help."
The joke finished and the duck broken, there is a more serious side to O'Dea's Queensland carnival aspirations this year.
Saturday's Hollindale Stakes on the Gold Coast will be Sir Moments' first run in weight-for-age company, a precursor to the four-year-old becoming only the trainer's third group 1 runner in the Doomben Cup a fortnight later.
Uncharted waters is probably a kind way to describe Sir Moments' Hollindale Stakes test against the likes of Chris Waller's four-strong group headed by dual group 1-winning New Zealand mare Silent Achiever.
But the former Townsville boy is content to make the transition into weight-for-age racing with Sir Moments after his last-start listed win at Doomben, saying the 1800-metre trip will be ideal for his maturing type.
"As strong a race as it is - and it's not your super weight-for-age race this year - he's at home and he's racing at a track that suits ... there's a lot of things in his favour," O'Dea said. "Now is the time to have a go at a race like this.
"He's a bit of a big sooky fella and when he was a bit younger he was a bit soft constitution-wise, but he's always showed really good ability from day one. He's improved that constitution slowly from prep to prep.
"It's good to see him back to form the other day and up in trip is going to suit and I think he's coming right at the right time."
The suspended Tim Bell will be replaced on Sir Moments by Sydney hoop Brenton Avdulla.
"He has got a little bit of an association with [owner] Proven Thoroughbreds and he won on Tremec the other day for them [in the Chairman's Handicap]," O'Dea said.
Ladbrokes listed Sir Moments at $17 on Friday evening for the Hollindale Stakes as David Vandyke's classy mare Arabian Gold ($4.60) held sway with bookmakers from Silent Achiever ($5).
Moriarty ($7.50) was the shortest of Waller's quartet, but money had arrived for Villiers Stakes runner-up I'm Imposing ($41 into $18).
Team Hawkes' Leebaz will squeeze into the field as first emergency after the mid-week scratching of Tasmanian Banca Mo.
But it still leaves Peter Moody's Wish Come True, Gai Waterhouse's Pornichet and Robert Heathcote's Hopfgarten sweating on a start.
O'Dea will make a two-pronged attack on the Gold Coast with Beau Jet seeking his fifth win in six career starts in the Gold Coast Guineas with Damien Oliver up.
