Racing: The right winning blend... and no milk

Keith Opie enjoyed the win by Indikator (No 5) over Tinseltown in the Rotorua Cup. Photo / Supplied

Pulling milk from a cow might be a way to make a dollar, but it can't match the thrill of training a big racetrack winner.

It's more than 30 years since Keith Opie came to that realisation.

He was reminded of it when Indikator flashed across the line, an impressive winner of Saturday's $70,000 Platinum Homes Rotorua Cup.

After serving his apprenticeship with Dave O'Sullivan, Keith Opie became one of New Zealand's most talented jumps jockeys for a couple of years, but gave it away because he married young and started a family.

He decided that sending 500kg thoroughbreds through large obstacles at speed was an unacceptable risk for a wife and young daughter to endure.

"So I went milking cows instead," he said after taking two horses to Rotorua at the weekend and winning with both.

He had five years of turning grass into milk before the lure of the horse proved too great.

He started training at Te Aroha and it wasn't long before a showy chestnut stallion arrived in his stable and, as So Dandy, won Opie the group one Railway.

"I think he ended up winning 15 races, most of them at the top level. He was always an under-rated horse."

Through three decades Keith Opie has maintained a low profile, but his record as a talented horseman is not missed by too many in the industry.

Saturday is not an isolated case of his strike rate being impressive.

His second winner, Bilpin Boy is now unbeaten in two appearances and looks destined for high honours.

But he'll have a fair way to go to catch up on Indikator, who, as a rising 7-year-old, is only just reaching his best form and could be on the verge of some really good paydays.

Some horses can look a little one-paced when young simply because they don't have the strength to propel their bodies at high speed.

Age can correct that in some and Indikator is one of those. The sprint he can now produce late in his races, evident in winning runs at Tauranga and on Saturday, is now very stylish.

It was a different story when Opie first took Indikator to the barrier trials at Te Awamutu, appropriately with Reese Jones, Saturday's winning jockey, on his back.

"I remember telling Reese that I thought an awful lot of the horse and not to show him up too much because we were keen to have a few dollars on him when he went to the races."

Things didn't quite go to plan, or perhaps too well - Indikator finished 50m behind the second-last horse in the trial.

"I said to Reese when he came back in: 'Jeez, how bad a judge am I?'

"I couldn't believe it."

Undeterred, Opie took Indikator back to the barrier trials and the horse won easily.

"Harry [Noel Harris] usually rides our horses and he was on when we took the horse to the races the first time in a midweek maiden at Paeroa.

"I told Harry that I thought the horse was special and that we'd had a bet.

"He was clear last at the 800m in a 1150m race and he won by three-quarters of a length with his head on his chest.

"Harry came in and said you've definitely got something special."

It has taken a lot of patience by Opie and owner Peter Setchell to develop a lightly-framed Indikator through to the mature horse he has suddenly become, and that course is starting to pay off handsomely.

The A$300,000 Brisbane Cup (2400m) on June 12 is now looming large.

"I had two plans, one to take him to Sydney for the off-carnival staying races and the other for the Brisbane Cup and after this win he deserves a crack at the Brisbane Cup," said Opie.

Setchell has scaled his Wellfield Stud operation back considerably in recent years and is now enjoying the racing element as much, or more, than simply breeding, although he has raced some high-class horses through the years, Society Bay being one of them.

Opie was pleased Reese Jones was the winning rider.

"I couldn't get a rider for Indikator in the Easter at Ellerslie and Reese agreed to ride him and to make the 53kg handicap. That's below his comfort zone.

"I decided not to run the horse after all that and I could hardly not offer this ride to Reese as a result."

Jones had Indikator in the driver's seat throughout and brought him along with a beautifully-timed run.

Tinseltown fought back well, but Indikator was too quick over the final 100m. Chettak just beat Vickezzchardonnay for third.

ROTORUA CUP

* Keith Opie is not disappointed he found the lure of the thoroughbred too difficult to resist.
* The former raceday rider milked cows for five years, but missed the raceday excitement ....
* ... like winning Saturday's $70,000 Rotorua Cup with Indikator.