Gazzard part-owns Additup with Timaru trainer Brett Inglis, and was at the top of the straight as the field swung for home at the end of the 2200m journey at the Oamaru racecourse.
''They went past us and I thought `he looks like he's going all right','' Gazzard said.
Additup certainly was going ''all right'' as he bounded away to win the day's feature by 8 lengths.
The 6yr-old gelding had not won in five attempts on a heavy track before, but Inglis felt two runs in this campaign had helped tighten him up for yesterday's open handicap.
''I was quietly optimistic,'' he said.
''He had two hard runs over a mile [1600m] and he blew hard. He was just getting fitter and fitter, but he needed the distance and needed the heavy track.''
The Waimate Racing Club's meeting was moved to Oamaru due to grandstand damage suffered in a storm last year, but Additup is one galloper who would not have minded where the meeting was held.
He won a rating 85 2200m at Oamaru last July, just two starts after winning a rating 65 1800m at Waimate in June last year.
Additup's victory will leave Inglis working out what to do next with the son of Eltawaasul.
''We'll just wait and see now. He's going to get rating points for this and that will make it a wee bit more awkward again, Time, hill get job done."
Time - and the biggest hill Kelvin Tyler could find - seemed to be the great healer for Heza Bachelor.
The Bachelor Duke gelding bowed a tendon after his third at Cromwell in March last year.
So, rather than racking up veterinary bills for himself and co-owner Emma McIntosh, Tyler let nature do its job.
''We just put him on the steepest hill we could find for about 11 months and kept him half-fit walking up and down. You probably wouldn't even know he had a bowed tendon now.''
The promise had been there with Heza Bachelor - both on the training track and in the pedigree.
''His granddam is Leilani, and he's always shown a huge amount of ability. He was just overracing in his earlier days so we needed him to settle before we put him over more ground.''
Double for HickmanKevin Hickman collected a running double as an owner with the wins of Delacroix and Vaporetto in the first two races yesterday.
Vaporetto, a 4yr-old Lucky Unicorn mare, hit the lead halfway down the straight to hold off El Bee Dee by two lengths, just half an hour after Delacroix's win in the rating 65 2200m.
Delacroix's co-trainer, Karen Parsons, said the son of Zabeel had a part to play in the 12-month gap between wins - even if she cannot figure out his behaviour patterns.
''I can't work out why he's so naughty in the gates when he's such a quiet horse,'' Parsons said.
''They put him in last today which made a difference.''
Delacroix's previous win came at Counties when the 4yr-old was with Cambridge trainer Roger James, who trains top mare Silent Achiever for Hickman.
