The Tapanui trainers produced the 4yr-old mare to win the listed $50,000 Dunedin Gold Cup at Wingatui - their biggest in 10 years of training together.
The daughter of Lucky Unicorn has looked like a stayer of considerable promise for some time, highlighted by her Boxing Day win at Wingatui over 2200m.
The Dunedin Gold Cup looked an obvious target for the mare, despite the fact she had only 17 starts under her belt in her career.
''It's been our aim for our season but I never thought we would pull it off - to have a runner in the cup would be good enough,'' Nikki Blatch said.
''She's a great wee horse, eh?''
The duo needed to get a run into the mare before yesterday's assignment, so lined her up in the Gore Cup on January 17 to keep her fitness levels up.
''We probably knew she was never going to be a realistic chance at Gore because it's too tight - she needs the bigger tracks to get going.
''It was just to put a run in the middle, really, and it topped her off nicely.''
Now, the question is whether they have to set their sights even higher with the progressive mare.
''We'll take her home and have a look. We'll probably stick her in something maybe a bit bigger before the end of the season - just to find out where she's at.''
First doubleOtautau trainer Bruce Tapper enjoyed his first double as a trainer, and he chose the right day to do it.
Tapper trained Five Kings to a win in the $25,000 rating 75 1400m before lining up The Knight to win the $40,000 1200m open handicap.
Five Kings has shown flashes of ability, scoring twice from 16 starts prior to yesterday, and Tapper had not been able to fault his work so far in 2015.
''He's been working good, but he was working good before Gore - all I can put it down to is the track at Gore,'' Tapper said.
''He's always gone well here before so we were hoping, but you never know.''
Five Kings was ignored by most punters, paying $16.20, but The Knight was utterly despised in the open sprint, returning $57.90 for his -length victory over Magic Epic.
''He's had the ability, but it's been hard to get it out for a while. Things have gone wrong, but we've put blinkers on and that's settled him. We galloped him with blinkers and it changed him.
''We were going to ride him cold and when we drew that [barrier 13], we were going to ride him handy and Sam [Spratt] said just as well he got held up.''
The Knight, trained by John Bary at Hastings for the first part of his career, will head to Invercargill next week for a rating 85 mile.
''We want to step him up over 2000m.''
