Dean Mirfin had a massive smile on his face after Island Press' win at Wellington on Monday but the Bathurst trainer has bigger ideas in mind.
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Mirfin's star gelding was too good at Wellington on Monday, taking out the Wellington Soldier Memorial Club Mountain and Rivers Handicap (1400m).
But following his first up start in this preparation, Mirfin confessed to Sky Thoroughbred Central he is already targeting a major Central West Cup.
"It was a brilliant ride as usual from Aaron Bullock," he said.
"We've got ambitious plans for him this time in the country, we want to run him in the Dubbo Cup prelude.
"Then trying to get him into the Dubbo (Gold) Cup, so winning today gets his benchmark up nice and high for that kind of assignment.
"It was a good start to his preparation, I'm very happy."
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Fresh off being crowned the top jockey in Racing NSW, Aaron Bullock grabbed another winner to round out his impressive season and was impressed by Island Press' composure.
"Them sort of horses go really good when they are match fit so I was mindful of that," he said.
"Even though we got the lead I made sure I just did enough so that he had a good kick along the straight.
"He railed really well, it's not easy to do that here with a sharp corner. He did that and managed to hold off all the challengers."
It was Island Press ($1.90) who got out of the barriers best to lead the field early from Notabadidea ($5) and Toulon Factor ($5).
Kylie Kennedy's Wild Rocket ($31) showed great improvement this time out to push up on the inside of the lead pack rounding onto the final straight with Island Press kick clear.
It looks as though Bullock and the gelding had won fairly comfortably only for Notabadidea to hit the line strong and sent the result to a photo finish.
But Island Press did enough to win narrowly, his first win of this preparation.
The win was one of three for Bullock on Monday with the jockey also having success riding for Tracey Bartley and Todd Howlett.
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