Ex-North Island galloper Way Too Easy has set up what could be a big finish to trainers Tony and Lyn Prendergast's week.
The galloper helped the West Melton trainers produce the quinella in race 4 at Oamaru yesterday when holding out runner-up Bogatyr.
The Prendergasts have a shot at producing winners in three consecutive days in two codes.
Lyn lines up her pacer Blingiton at Marlborough today and she and Tony have last-start winner Showpin running at Riccarton tomorrow.
Way Too Easy was having just her second start for the Prendergasts when scoring over 1200m.
Like their stable star, Who Dares Wins, the horse came south from Stephen McKee's Ardmore stable.
"We have had her for about three or four months. We leased her off a client of Stephen McKee's," Lyn said.
The way Way Too Easy handled yesterday's testing Oamaru track suggested she could be a horse to follow.
But the Prendergasts think Bogatyr could go be an even better friend to punters.
"The winner - she is an out and out mudder and likes the ground, but the second horse, he is just green," Lyn said.
"He is going to be a good horse."
Jacob Lowry was the star of yesterday's riding ranks by winning three on the eight-race card.
He admitted he was something of a passenger when guiding the Graham and Michael Eade-trained Orepuki Lad to win race 8 by more than 12 lengths.
"It was a sit and steer job; that horse, he is a bit above average," Lowry said.
"I think the connections were pretty confident coming in and I just had to steer it."
Lowry had to get much busier to win yesterday's feature event, race 1.
Ablaze was caught flat footed because of the muddling pace in the 2200m event and Lowry had to get busy on the Brian and Shane Anderton-trained galloper before the home turn.
"It was a funny run race; they only went a moderate pace early and then they really sprinted at the 800m.
"They were always going to come back to me eventually, but I just had to hold my place.
"He won pretty easily in the end."
Once Ablaze got back up on the bit in the home straight and got clear running, he scored a comfortable win over Tilly Dunnage and Kings Pal.
Lowry completed the middle leg of his treble when On Point lived up to her name when winning race 6.
The victory came after the Lance Robinson-trained mare had matured and put away her bag of tricks, Lowry said.
"She has got a few knacks that slow her down, like going out on to the track and in the barrier, but we have got that under control at the moment."
Yesterday's meeting was delayed because there were no starting stalls on course, stipendiary steward Mark Davidson said.
The situation was caused by an administrative error between the Oamaru Jockey Club and Gallop South, which provides the starting gates.
When it became apparent there were no starting stalls on the morning before the races, a set was sourced from Timaru.
