Durable galloper Waipipi Lad collected expenses for an upcoming move with his latest victory at Te Rapa.
The sprightly 8-year-old produced a gallant performance in the hands of Sam Spratt on Saturday to account for his Rating 85 rivals after looking to be in trouble in the straight.
"He's atough old bugger and Sam said she thought he was beaten when the other horse [Kitaya] headed her and was travelling a lot better, but he dug deep," trainer Jon Miller said. "He knows his job and while he's not top-class, he's capable of knocking over a good field on his day. He's a happy horse and I might look at an open mile in a month's time for him."
The race in mind for the son of Mr Nancho is the Listed Haunui Farm Classic at Pukekohe, the training base Miller will shortly leave for a shift to Cambridge.
"I've bought Anne Herbert's place so we'll be taking over next month," he said. "I'll have half a dozen horses in work and I've been breeding a few."
The star of his small team is the Group 1 placegetter Prince Of Passion, in the early stages of a new campaign.
"Anne agreed to take him so he's already there on the walker in pre-training," Miller said.
The winner of five races, Prince Of Passion produced a career-high performance this year when he was runner-up to Thee Auld Floozie in the Thorndon Mile at Trentham.