“I loved her mum on the track and when she came up for sale we went to $650,000 to buy her. If there was a dream it would be something like this."

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Solar Charged, trained by John O’Shea, had been a group 3 winner at two and three and had an abundance of speed.

“She had had a couple of foals before she went to Zoustar but she was the star mare I wanted for him,” Thompson said. "I just thought it would work.

“From when Sunlight was a foal she was a little bit special and had the attitude to go with it. She was [a] horse that had to be careful of because she would nip you.

“When she went to the sale, we knew she would go well and when Tony McEvoy bought her for $300,000 I asked if we could keep a bit because I thought she would win the Magic Millions."

Sunlight has lived up to her good looks and Thompson’s dream on the track, winning the Magic Millions Classic at two before running third in the Golden Slipper.

She has kept coming up at every preparation and was Australian three-year-old of the year last season. She became the first filly to win a group 1 handicap and group 1 weight-for-age race in the Newmarket and the William Reid Stakes after beating the boys in the Coolmore Stud Stakes in the spring.

“I really liked her from the time I saw at the sales and fought for her and got her, thank god,” trainer Tony McEvoy said.

“The first time we put a saddle on her, Warren Sutton, who is my educator said 'gee whiz this is an intelligent filly'. She has been an A-grade student since.

“She only needs to be taught once and [she is] competitive wherever we go. I haven't had a filly like her.”

So McEvoy was stunned when she was beaten at her first start, but a couple of months later he was celebrating a Magic Millions success and the winning hasn't stopped. She has won 11 of her 19 starts and more than $4 million in stakes.

“I have two-year-olds that have shown ability like her but were too soft to get to the races and when they have matured they have been good horses.,” McEvoy said. “There are very few that do what she has done. Only a couple I can think of.

“Even when she gets beaten she runs in the first three, she could have won a Slipper and when she was third in the TJ [Smith] in the autumn, she just never got on the track.

“That’s her, she's very good but she's a competitor.”

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Max Whitby and his group liked Sunlight’s form and were quick to sign her up in their slot for the Everest. McEvoy has gone about preparing her for Saturday’s $14 million challenge.

He knows his mare and wasn’t concerned when she was blown away by the speed in the Concorde Stakes. He had planned three runs into the Everest, which changed when Sydney’s wet weather forced her into the Moir Stakes where she was third to Nature Strip at Moonee Valley.

But her final lead-up in the Gilgai Stakes at Flemington two weeks ago showed she was back to winning form.

“She needs that racing,” McEvoy said. “She has been incredible at two, three and four and I am very happy with her now. You can see her improving.

“I think with Nature Strip there on Saturday the tempo will be very true, and she would have beaten him at 1000m in the Moir in a couple more strides, so I think she has his measure.

“She likes that sort of pressure and she will be there at the end. She has never let us down."