She's our own miracle mare

The proud mare will be running strong on the 10 per cent chance she had of surviving a second operation for an intestinal obstruction in June 2002.

And she will carry venerable status as only the second Wimmera horse to have run in Australia's richest race.

That's where the bloodline counts.

The first and only Wimmera cup starter until 2003 was Prince Camillo, bred, broken, trained and owned by the legendary Fisher brothers up at Brim.

She's Archie is owned and was bred by their cousin Worrall `Wogsy' Dunn, now of Horsham.

Big brown gelding Prince Camillo finished sixth behind Light Fingers in 1965 after having jumped a fallen horse during the race, and then fifth to Red Handed two years later.

Worrall Dunn would be happy to see his miracle mare achieve as much.

The heady atmosphere in the mounting yard at Flemington racecourse tomorrow will be a world away from one of Dunn's darkest hours in horseracing, when Victoria's best vets told him what to expect going into the second bout of surgery.

"We were really devastated when they told us she had only a 10 per cent chance of surviving a second operation," Dunn said.

"It brought us pretty close to our horse.

"And it's very hard for other people to understand like we do that she's been cut open and stitched up twice, and she's been locked up again for two months with fractures in her legs."

She's Archie would almost certainly die if she underwent a third abdominal operation.

She has trouble digesting some food. Because of that fact she will never be put out to graze and will spend her life being hand-fed.

Worrall and wife Lorraine watch their beloved horses from the kitchen window of their Lower Norton home.

They help their mares foal and they watch with certain devotion and delight as their leggy youngsters learn to run.

Worrall Dunn believes She's Archie's trainer Darren Weir and his wife Leonie were major reasons she recovered.

"It was unbelievable how they put in beyond their training, they were just wonderful," he said.

Darren Weir, formerly of Stawell and now of Ballarat's Forest Lodge, could not have estimated his devotion would be rewarded with a run in the race of all races.

"It's a special thing," he said.

"I suppose it's what every trainer wants to do, have a runner in the big group races.

"We're just hoping for the best, it would be great to run in the first 10."

Weir rates She's Archie as a `terrible' track worker and estimates she will follow her usual race regimen and run at the rear of the field before storming home.

"We'll probably use the usual racing pattern, but with the fact that we've got the extra distance and the huge drop in weight I would hope she wouldn't get as far back," he said.

"For her racing style you need heaps of luck and when you get right back you're among the trouble."

Like the Fishers, Worrall and Lorraine love to make racing a family game.

Their daughters Melissa, Celeste and Simone are part-owners of She's Archie and will be trackside tomorrow.

They will be there for the thrill and for the spectacle and to see whether She's Archie can beat the odds again.