All anyone wanted to know was whether the staying find of the Sydney spring would back up in The Metropolitan, yet her connections didn't even get the chance to make a decision.
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Turns out the last deadline for late nominations for the $750,000 group 1 next Saturday closed a fortnight ago - and had just one supplementary entry. It wasn't Amelie's Star. How trainer Peter Moody wished someone had stumped up the $550.
But how could you blame them for not? While most trainers had concrete plans for their stayers a couple of months ago to target The Metropolitan, Amelie's Star was running around in a Hawkesbury maiden with no suitable galloping partner at home.
"We didn't really know how good she was," said Moody's Sydney foreperson Clare Cunningham after Amelie's Star completed a demolition job on her more seasoned rivals in the group 3 Colin Stephen Quality at Rosehill on Saturday.
"We had nothing to gallop her against in the small Sydney stable as well. We just put her through her grades and she's won well at benchmarks and she deserves to be here today."
The Colin Stephen success was Amelie's Star's fourth straight victory, a winning sequence that has included a couple of lowly benchmark 75 races at Warwick Farm.
Cunningham reckons the four-year-old "didn't know what she was doing" earlier in the campaign.
But after crushing Bohemian Lily by 3¼ lengths with Reigning back in third, it is fair to say she is on the same page as her trainer and foreperson now.
"I think the progression she has made - it's been so big - that time will be her friend," said winning rider Josh Parr, who chalked up an early double after Mr One Eleven's success in the opener.
"It was just a matter of how relaxed she was and I knew by the 1000 [metres] when I asked her for half an effort she grabbed the bit and really lifted herself into the race. From that point I was really confident because I knew she was going to let go."
Owner Patrick Hodgens had sought some advice from Vinery Stud's Adam White on the best mating for his Zabeel mare Zazita, which he bought at the Magic Millions broodmare sale almost a decade ago.
The result was a mix of strength and speed with Testa Rossa chosen as the stallion that produced Amelie's Star.
"You always dream, but never expect it to happen," Hodgens said. "Even before the race we were thinking it's such a big step up and she wasn't in well at the weights. She is highly talented so it's worked out."
