It may not have been a Golden Slipper for the battlers but It would certainly have been welcomed at the offices of William Inglis at Warwick Farm and at Arrowfield Stud on the Gundy Road, Scone and as far away as Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
Carrying the same colours of Emirate Park's 2014 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun, Estijaab led all the way under Brenton Avdulla in the world's richest race for juveniles.
The Team Hawkes trained daughter of Snitzel drew an outside barrier but she used her amazing speed to cross the field to take up the running.
After beating off the favourites Written By and Sunlight, Estijaab bravely held the finishing burst by Tony McEvoy's second-stringer Oohood (I Am Invincible) by a long-head with Sunlight (Zoustar) holding out Written By (Written Tycoon) for third and complete a trifecta for the fillies. (photos Steve Hart).
"Since of been on this filly from day dot she has given me a special feel.
"You dream of riding Golden Slipper winners. When I was 15 inside the apprentice school I was the biggest and they said I had 12 months in the saddle and I would be going back to school.
"I've made Sydney home now and to win a Golden Slipper, it's something that I never thought I could do.
"That is outstanding," Michael Hawkes, who trains Estijaab in partnership with his dad John and brother Wayne, said.
"If my emotions could tell you how that makes us feel. I can't believe it.
"It's been a real rollercoaster over the past month or so, with Chautauqua, this filly getting beaten then bouncing back.
"We never gave up hope, plenty did but she's a special filly and we knew she could do it."
A half-sister to the stakes-placed Fastnet Rock filly Alter Call, Estijaab was consigned by Arrowfield Stud to the 2017 Inglis Australia Easter Yearling Sale where she was purchased by Emirates Park / B Carlson for $1.7 million, which makes her the second most expensive yearling filly by her sire.
Bred by Northern Fam's owner Katsumi Yoshida in association with Arrowfield Stud, the daughter of Snitzel is the third foal of the Charge Forward mare Response who came out of the same sales ring nine years earlier when purchased by Barry Griffiths for $50,000.
She went on to win four races for Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra, three of those came in stakes races highlighted by the Group I Sangster Stakes and Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.
At the conclusion of her career on the track, Response was consigned to the 2012 Australian Easter Broodmare Sale where she was knocked down to SF Bloodstock for $840,000.
Her first foal by Fastnet Rock, Alter Call, sold for $1,050,000 to China Horse Club at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling sale. Her second foal, the Exceed And Excel colt named De Gaulle suffered a tendon injury in training and did not reach the track. The 3yo covered 22 mares at John Pratt's Brooker Park in Darnum, Victoria in 2017.
Response was back in the sale ring again in 2015 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale where she was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $1.5 million.
At the recent Magic Million Yearling Sale, Arrowfield Stud consigned a Snitzel filly out of Response who was purchased by Moody Racing for $350,000.
Response has another filly foal by Snitzel and was bred back to the champion son of Redoute's Choice again last spring.
