Time has not dimmed the skills of Darren Gauci, as was shown with a winning double on Saturday at Caulfield.

Renowned as a superb judge of pace he was in his element giving the gelding, Rich Jack, the run of the race in the Jockeys Trust Final, he was in supreme control of the issue from the outset.

While Gauci received some of the accolades, there were some left over for a remarkable lady in Carole Heffernan, trainer of the winner, Rich Jack.

She raised her eyes to the sky in remembrance of her late father, Kevin, a committeeman of the VATC, and later the MRC, it was her first winner at Caulfield.

“My dad was my best friend, I often look to sky and say thanks dads,” Kevin was a great character, larger than life with a army of friends

Rich Jack ridden by Darren Gauci

Winners have not been that frequent for Carole, it was her first city Saturday winner, and what a thrill, at her late father’s course, Caulfield.

She is restricted to having six horses in work at any one time, the truck only holds six and she has to travel from Yarra Glen to Cranbourne to work them each day.

When she commenced training she was pregnant with Paige, a pregnancy she remembers for all the wrong reasons, a dramatic accident.

“I was riding a horse at the time and got run over by a car that was 21 years ago, we were both lucky, “she said.

Rich Jack is by Danerich, he has sired a lot of winners with little recognition, and he made a lot of ordinary mares improved for the experience.

A winning partnership - Darren Gauci and Carole Heffernan