Here's mud in your eye. Normally a toast to good health, but for Single Gaze it almost cost her an eye. It was also when Billy Owen became Canberra's answer to Tommy Woodcock.

Owen's the foreman for Canberra trainer Nick Olive and has also been Single Gaze's Melbourne companion since she travelled down more than two months ago.

He was ecstatic with how she came through her trip to the beach on Sunday morning as she gets ready for the $6 million Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Tuesday.

Not only does Owen ride her for track work, but he has also taken on the barrier draw duties, plucking out barrier 11 for jockey Kathy O'Hara at the draw on Saturday night.

The tough-as-nails mare will be the first Canberra-trained horse since Ain't Seen Nothin' finished 13th in the race that stops a nation in 2003.

But it might never have been after she copped a clod in her eye when she ran third in the group 3 Sellwood Stakes at a muddy Rosehill in March.

It became infected and there was the realistic chance she could've lost the eye.

Then she might never have finished second in the Caulfield Cup, which definitely meant she wouldn't be about to take on some of the world's best horses in Australia's most famous race.

Owen showed his true colours as a modern-day Woodcock when he and his girlfriend slept at the stables for a week, nursing the now five-year-old mare back to health.

For those that don't know, Woodcock was the great Phar Lap's strapper and he would sleep outside the 1930 Melbourne Cup winner's stable before big races.

"She got a clod in her eye and she actually nearly lost her eye, so that's another piece to her story," Owen said.

"She had to be treated every four hours and me and my girlfriend we actually stayed at the stables for a week with the horse.

"As silly as it sounds sleeping with her, we actually did for a week. I feel as though she's a friend to me, they have such personalities ... she's very, very sweet and loving."

That's not the only similarity Owen and Woodcock share - they both wanted to be jockeys, but their weight wouldn't allow them to follow their dreams.

It was riding that initially brought the Gundagai born-and-bred Owen to Canberra and he served his apprenticeship in Olive's stable.

But as his body weight failed him, another door at the Olive stable opened and he worked his way up to foreman.

Maybe some day down the track he'll follow in Olive's footsteps and go from foreman with a successful Canberra trainer to a trainer in his own right.

"To be with the same trainer in this industry for 8½ years it's kind of a special bond - I don't think of him as my boss any more, he's more of a best mate you know," Owen said.

Owen was also the one who started the Melbourne Cup dream.

About 10 months ago he flicked O'Hara a text message about the Cup, which will end up with her becoming just the sixth woman to ride in it.

Owen's still amazed that O'Hara and his mare are still together - there were grave concerns for both of them when they fell in the group 1 ATC Oaks at Rosehill more than 18 months ago.

Both lives and careers could've been over. But to look at the two now you wouldn't know it - all Single Gaze has to show is a little scar on her shoulder.

Now Owen's dream is a reality and while he's already proud of his little chestnut friend, he can't imagine what he'll be feeling if she defies the $41 odds and salutes on Tuesday.

"I sent Kathy O'Hara a message about 10 months ago, before the Brisbane campaign, just joking around, 'Have you ever had a ride in the Melbourne Cup?' And she said, 'No'," he said.

" 'Well can we dare to dream?' and she said, 'Of course we can'. That was 10 months ago and we're here. We've just got to get her to Tuesday and we know what we're going to get.

"If the unthinkable happened, geez, we ran second in the Caulfield Cup and I said after that race I couldn't imagine what winning [would feel like]."