A winning attitude is what Kristen Buchanan calls it. Against her rider, the trainer, other horses ... Two Blue always needs to have the last laugh.
"Even when she's run fifth [in a race] you watch her ... she'll still go past them all when they pull up," Buchanan laughs. "The mare's attitude is unbelievable. I've never had another horse like her."
Not that she really minds. The unheralded Wyong trainer has been battling with the rising seven-year-old mare for longer than she cares to remember.
Most of it was to do with Two Blue's fierce nature in races, fighting jockeys and rival horses to have her own way.
Unfashionably-bred stock is Buchanan's bread and butter. She reasons she pours her heart and soul into each, all with their own faults, yet only some will provide rewards. Two Blue just happens to be one of those.
For a horse that has a roll call of riders in the past including Bowman, Oliver, Schofield and Ford, Buchanan is most thankful to a little three-kilogram claimer called Melissa Brown.
She rides competitively only sparingly these days, but can always be chuffed there is one trainer thanking her lucky stars she threw her on Two Blue one pre-summer day at Port Macquarie.
"I couldn't get riders to ride like [Buchanan had wanted] and they all wanted to argue with her," Buchanan said. "She was always on the bit and was very aggressive.
"At the time we had little Melissa Brown riding and I said, 'just sit on her and let her be comfortable. Be a passenger'. Well the horse won - and kept on winning - and that's been her pattern and we've stuck with it.
"You just can't have someone on who argues with her. She likes to do her own thing and is very strong willed and she'll use up her energy against a rider if they want to take her on, so you've really got to work with her."
Buchanan is thankful the opportunity to work with Two Blue presented itself from owner Ken Dennis and his partner in the horse, Bruce Mackie.
They have Two Blue's full sister about to come into work with Buchanan - and plans are already advanced name her Three Blue, dubbed a "little clone" of her older sibling.
And the value on the shares in that horse might swell a little if Two Blue, by Doubleo out of Booty Blue, can nab a first black type win in the feature $100,000 Civic Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.
The mare has been the best advertisement for Buchanan's boutique team as she eyes the chance to expand the provincial stable.
Having led all the way under Paul King last week, Buchanan had no hesitation throwing another female apprentice on Two Blue in the Civic Stakes - only this one is Sydney's champion junior rider elect.
King will follow Lovethebeaches to the Queensland Cup at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday leaving the veteran rider to pass on Two Blue's traits to the in-form Winona Costin, fresh from a winning treble in Sydney's west last weekend.
"Paul rides the mare regularly in trackwork for me and knows Winona well," Buchanan said.
"I'm not too worried about where we've drawn [14]. The rail is out and that might put a little bit of pressure on, but she doesn't have to lead in races. You just have to let her be where she is comfortable and she really needs to dictate to the rider."
