It's not quite the fountain of youth but trainer Peter Morgan's revolutionary water treadmill has breathed new life into injury-plagued galloper Casual Pass.
The eight-year-old will be chasing his second Yalumba Stakes victory on Saturday when he takes on Pompeii Ruler in the $400,000 weight-for-age race.
Should he win again the race he won two years ago Casual Pass will join a select group to have won the event on multiple occasions.
Since its inception in 1886, only 10 horses have won the Yalumba Stakes (its official name is the Caulfield Stakes) more than once, none more illustrious than the most recent pair Lonhro (2002-03) and Kingston Town (1981-82).
That Casual Pass is still on the track is a feat in itself. The gelding's career appeared over in 2003 when he tore his suspensory ligament as well as tearing a piece off his cannon bone after winning the Mackinnon Stakes.
But he came back and matched it with the best in the spring of 2006 when he defeated Fields Of Omagh in the Yalumba and ran second in a Sandown Classic.
He was turned out for another 12 months in August 2007 and transferred from Mathew Ellerton's Flemington stables to the Whittlesea-based Morgan, 'mainly because of my pool', his new trainer said.
"We can work him in the water and all these sorts of things and they haven't got those sorts of facilities at Flemington," Morgan said.
"We don't particularly have to ride them on the track if we don't have to. We can work them in the water. They're not swimming."
The pool is of tremendous benefit to Casual Pass, who does half his work in the water and the other half on the track.
"(It) keeps the weight off him and stops him from pounding around on the track," he said.
"When he has his gallop at home he comes straight off the track and has his 20 minutes walk in the pool to cool his legs down."
"For instance if he had a gallop on Tuesday we probably wouldn't ride him the next day he'd do his work in the water."
"That's the advantage I've got with the pool."
The prospect of a firm track on Saturday is of minor concern to Morgan, who is wary what effect it will have on the eight-year-old's legs.
"We'd certainly be happier if it was a dead track," he said.
A win in the Yalumba, worth $240,000 to successful connections, may convince owner David Moodie to pay a $130,000 late entry fee for the Cox Plate.
But Morgan said Casual Pass, who was almost certainly in his final preparation before retirement, was a race to race proposition.