Pinseeker aces the Central Otago Cup at Omakau
Jonny Turner • January 3rd, 2026 9:45 AM • 4 min read
Planning played a key role in Pinseeker’s brilliant Gr.3 Central Otago Cup win — but it wasn’t everything. Trainer-driver Jonny Cox approached Omakau with patience, which paid off when his pinpoint planning saw his talented pacer surge back to form with his runaway victory.
Undeniably talented, Pinseeker’s tendency to over-race has caused some headaches for Cox and his ownership group.
After the issue reared its head in the New Zealand Cup, Cox pushed reset on the pacer’s campaign and came up with a plan in mind to target certain feature races.
And that plan began with him missing the Gr.1 Invercargill Cup and heading to Omakau fresh up.
“I have had it in the back of my mind to keep him to short course racing,” Cox said. “He is a funny horse at times, he can just about count the laps and when the second one comes around he really wants to get on with it.”
“We targeted the 2000m at Omakau and next he will head to Nelson for their mile race up there.”
“Hopefully these shorter distances will help him build his confidence and his tractability up and we can reassess our options further down the road.”
While Cox might have carefully planned his way to Omakau with Pinseeker, launching a stinging attack at the 900m wasn’t in the trainer-driver’s pre-race plans.
But a slackening of the pace after Alta Meteor wrestled the lead away from the favourite Wag Star presented a moment to Cox that was awfully tempting to take advantage of.
“They had burnt past the winning post and he was just getting keen enough to be annoying when they backed it off.”
“It was either go at the 900m or go at the 500m anyway, so we took our chance.”
“When he got the top he dropped the bit which was very pleasing.”
“We’ve had a few ups and downs so to get a result like today is great for the horse and great for the owners.”
With the whole Central Otago Cup field travelling from north and south to compete in the feature, Pinseeker’s win was as close to a local victory as possible.
The pacer is raced by a group of keen golfers including Ian Wilson, Peter Brinsdon, Jason Wood, Bernie McKone, Phil Stephens, Logan Boersma and Gary May, several of whom are based in Central Otago.
Junior driver Gemma Thornley starred at Omakau with a winning treble which included driving Midnight Dash to victory in the Gr.3 Gallagher Cup. The race became a tactical battle between Thornley and John Dunn who was piloting the hot favourite I Dream Of Jeannie.
Midnight Dash gained an early advantage over his key rival before dragging her into the race inside the final 1000m.
But Thornley had managed to establish a winning lead on the home turn which Midnight Dash maintained as he ran to a well overdue victory.
And in the process, Thornley collected her first win in a Group race.
Midnight Dash had spent much of his career chasing his best buddy and paddock mate from the Greg and Ben Hope stable in Muscle Mountain, often running outstanding placings in the process.
The trotter had produced several of those since his previous victory in February of last year. Thornley had earlier scored with Crackle N Crunch, who closed late to win a hectic junior drivers event.
The reinswoman started the day by guiding Cinderella Franco to an emphatic debut win, by more than seven lengths.
