Such is the life of a jockey, Warren Kennedy had no time to celebrate a feat that others in racing circles are absolutely toasting.
The South African, who moved here in 2022, nabbed an incredible seven wins at the prestigious New Year's Day meeting at Pukekohe Park.
One of his salutes, aboard Waitak, came in the time-honoured Railway, while he also scored three successes at Group Two level throughout the day.
"It's been absolutely surreal, days like that just don't happen," Kennedy told 1News at his home, before he had to get on the road to Tauranga for today's races.
"I went to bed, I had to put my phone on silent because of all the messages and phone calls I was getting, but I woke up this morning still not quite realising what had happened."
Kennedy's incredible day is one of the rarest in New Zealand history.
Many reports state it's the first ever in the sport here and while records are difficult to validate, racing historians have told 1News they believe there are two occurrences of it happening at much lesser meetings in Wairoa in 1907 and Huntly in 1910.
What Kennedy achieved, though, on the biggest is easily the most prolific in New Zealand's thoroughbred racing history.
His first win of the day came aboard the Wexford Stable filly Grande Gallo, before winning race three on two-year-old Bellatrix Star.
In the very next race he eased across the line on Pour The Wine and followed that up on the Lance Noble-trained About Time in the second Group One of the day, while winning the seventh race on the card aboard Karman Line.
That all came before the big one aboard Waitak, trained by Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott in the Group One Railway sprint.
He finished the day teaming up with Noble again, aboard Habana.
Kennedy rates Waitak as his best ride.
"Winning a Group One and coming from last in that field.
"But my favourite was probably Habana. He's a horse that, since I came to New Zealand, we've really struck a good relationship, and he's really won some nice races for me. For him to get up on the last stride in a Group Two, it was just something special."
One of our greatest jockeys ever, O'Sullivan mustered six in one meet twice in his career. The now-trainer is in awe of what Kennedy achieved.
"I can't honestly tell you what it takes to win seven because I've never achieved it myself!" he joked.
"It all became very easy. It's timing and it's just like watching a good rugby player, like Dan Carter - they have all the time in the world. Warren was never in a hurry, he was never panicked and it just all happened for him and he just rode with extreme confidence."
O'Sullivan believes Kennedy's even getting better: "New Zealand at the moment, we're very fortunate to have two very, very good jockeys with Opie Bosson being the other.
"He has an unorthodox style which took a little bit of getting used to, but very effective what he does and it certainly does work."
Meanwhile for Kennedy, winning three of the races for horses in the hands of O'Sullivan makes things extra special.
"One thing is that ex-jockeys are the most difficult trainers to ride for. They can spot the mistakes in races, they've been there, and they've done it, so you can't pull the wool over their eyes.
"Lance is a champion jockey. The family's world class and he was very complimentary to me about my rides on those horses. He had a good look at them and said those were really, really good rides. Lance has been supporting me really strong of late."
To make the story even more remarkable, it was Kennedy's first race day ride back from a suspension for careless riding, where he missed the Boxing Day races also at Pukekohe.
The suspension, perhaps a blessing in disguise.
"It actually gave me a break away from racing. We race every day and it actually becomes a bit monotonous," an honest Kennedy told 1News.
"You don't really want to say it, but it just becomes a regular thing and you get a little bit bored with it, you don't give every horse the attention they should be getting. even though you don't mean to. There's so much of it, that it just becomes an everyday thing. so the break really set me away from that and got me recharged and refocused."
The incredible day also put him back with a healthy cushion in the national jockey premiership - which before the Tauranga meeting, he led by eight wins.
He'll ride again at Te Aroha tomorrow. As for Waitak, he'll head to the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa in February to try to add another Group One success to his tally.
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