A winning double with Blue Wagon and Scamp provided a fulfilling end to the day for the powerful Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman training partnership at Te Rapa on Saturday.

The Cambridge based duo produced six runners at the venue on the weekend and came away satisfied with a haul of two wins and three minor placings from their days work. Despite being low on firepower during the winter months the stable moved to within eight of the magical 100 winner mark with seven weeks of the racing season still to come.

“We were pretty happy to grab those wins as it was a nice reward for a very consistent day for the team,” noted Forsman.

“We only had one finish out of the money and that was our two-year-old filly who ran a close fourth so we were competitive with the whole team which was very pleasing.”

Forsman had been confident of a good showing from the winning pair after they had both put in good runs at their previous starts.

“Scamp has come up well in this preparation and was ready to win after finishing a nice third at Ellerslie,” he said.

“He had to carry topweight and fought like a tiger to come back when he looked beaten so it was a top effort.

“We put the blinkers back on Blue Wagon and that did the trick as it sharpened him up nicely. He also had to carry a big weight so again it was a good effort to hold them all out in a driving finish.

Despite the brace taking the combination to within six wins of the Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards partnership at the head of the National Trainer’s Premiership ladder, Forsman was realistic about their chances of retaining the title they won in 2014/15.

“We don’t have that many in work at this time of the year and we don’t travel them much so I doubt whether we could catch Stephen and Jamie,” he said.

“We will keep plugging away though so it would be nice if we could get a little closer and make it a good finish to the season.”