As Alligator Blood shoots for his biggest racing payday, the vet who saved the career of the cult hero horse has laid bare the incredible 90-minute procedure which helped transform him into an elite racing superstar.

The ‘Gator is now a five-time Group 1 winner but it could have been curtains for his career several years ago when his form nosedived after a spectacular three-year-old season.

He was diagnosed with a "kissing spine" condition and Dr Ben Ahern went to work at the University of Queensland Equine Specialist Hospital in Gatton.

"This sort of back surgery might have been a bit unusual in Australia not so long ago, but it is one of the few surgeries where you can completely fix something and it doesn't deteriorate or get worse as you get older," Dr Ahern said.

"If you take a chip of bone out of a knee, you are still going to get arthritis because you have other consequences.

"With the kissing spine surgery, we made the space bigger between Alligator Blood's bones.

"Before that, it had been restricting this horse's ability to flex and extend which is required to gallop.

"It was an issue because a bone was rubbing against another bone and causing pain, so when the horse wanted to extend he didn't stretch out."

Alligator Blood is the dominant $2.80 favourite for Saturday's $5m All-Star Mile at The Valley which offers the winner an extraordinary $2.25m payday.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained excitement machine goes into the All-Star Mile having won Group 1s at his last two starts and is rated the second best horse in Australia.

Alligator Blood was ranked the 10th best horse in the world in the recently announced 2023 Longines World's Best Racehorse rankings – and Anamoe was the only Australian horse above him on the list.

Ahern played the major role in Alligator Blood's rejuvenation but he can't say he is surprised at the gelding's astonishing success since.

He paid credit to Alligator Blood's trainers along the journey – including Waterhouse and Bott – for following a management regime to allow the star horse to show his best.

"In horses as with humans, it's very common that one major thing can have three or four other smaller issues, it can alter the way the horse moves so they can tend to get other soreness," Ahern said.

"But hats off to the owners and trainers he's had over the years for really looking after him.

"He had a fairly big spell there at one point and that was really key in allowing the horse to develop and adapt to altered exercise programs.

"I know a bunch of people who would have gone ‘this is too hard', but they persisted with this horse."

Ahern will be cheering from afar when Alligator Blood races for the giant prize on Saturday, taking a special interest in the horse he helped bring back to his devastating best.

"This horse had an original vet who looked after him and we text each other when he is running and I also get messages from the owners and everyone who is involved with him," Ahern said.

"It's cool to see an elite athlete in any discipline return so well from surgery and to have played a small role with Alligator Blood is very cool.

"I enjoy working with horses who have ability and I can help unlock that ability."

Saturday's race will be an emotional moment for Alligator Blood's former owner Allan Endresz who, at the All-Star Mile three years ago, was told his wife Joy had only months to live.

2023 will be remembered as the year that the Gator took all before him to win the All Star Mile in loving memory of Joy Endresz, who sadly passed away on 12 June 2022 after fighting excruciating pain and cancer for 2 1/2 years. 3 years ago, at the 2020 All Star Mile, Joy was told… https://t.co/q4adUE2fBQpic.twitter.com/dujwZ1Q7t4

— Allan Endresz (@EndreszAllan) March 14, 2023

Joy Endresz bravely fought her cancer battle until last year when she passed away a day after Alligator Blood won the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap in Queensland.