Opie on a winning roll

[Wandering Eyes]

Gavin Opie inched closer to reaching his career-best season’s tally when recording a winning double at Pukekohe on Wednesday.

The Te Aroha trainer now sits on nine wins, just one victory shy of his previous best tally, and he is hopeful to better that mark before season’s end.

“It was brilliant. We are only a small stable and to get results like that is really satisfying,” he said.

“This is my third season training on my own and it would be nice if we got to 10.”

Koro’s Princess kicked off proceedings when taking out the NZB Airfreight 1400.

The three-year-old filly settled in just behind the speed for apprentice jockey Masa Hashizume, who gave his charge a soft passage on the rail before unleashing her down the centre of the track with 200m to go, and she was able to distance her rivals to score by 1-1/2 lengths.

“We were hopeful going in there,” Opie said.

“When I saw the first couple of races I thought we would struggle a bit (on the Heavy10 track), but we have always held her in high regard and she got the job done.”

A trip to Northland now beckons the daughter of Proisir.

“We have always had in mind the 1600m three-year-old race at Ruakaka toward the end of July. So she will head there,” Opie said.

Two races later, Opie was back in the winner’s stall when welcoming back Mister Pucci following his win in the Betavet 1600.

“Mr Pucci came from Simon Rees, who is an owner-trainer. He is turning into a very nice animal,” Opie said.

Opie is eager to get to 10 wins this season and said it could very well come at Cambridge’s synthetic meeting on Saturday, a track he has had plenty of success on recently.

“We have had a couple of wins on the synthetic over the last couple of weeks. It has been good,” he said.

Five-year-old gelding Flight Plan will tackle the Gartshores Construction 1550 at Saturday’s meeting and Opie is hoping he can improve on his recent two placings.

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