When you are on a good thing it’s best to stick with it.
It’s a principle that can very well apply to punters and their connection to Michael Grantham.
In recent weeks, it’s been a fruitful and lucrative enterprise with the North Dandalup trainer a frequent visitor to the winner’s enclosure.
His stable is humming, knocking out consistent winners and under the cerise and white silks of prominent owner, Bob Peters, he’s exposed some promising types that are sure to be around come Ascot carnival time.
Opportunistic is one of those horses and he gets another chance to showcase his wares in Saturday’s Listed Belmont Guineas (1600m), a race Grantham has a liking for, winning it twice in the past three years.
Undefeated in his two outings, Opportunistic can add to what has already been an outstanding month of racing for Grantham’s team.
In June he’s chalked up 10 wins including a Saturday treble at Pinjarra, spearheaded by First Encounter, Allentown and Arcadia Knight.
Grantham’s season tally of city winners sits at 32, half a win behind Dan Morton in sixth position and far surpassing his 13-win tally from the 2023/24 season.
Overall, he’s prepared 68 winners, with only Grant and Alana Williams and Dan and Ben Pearce ahead of him in the WA trainer’s premiership race.
Grantham, who cut his teeth as a jockey before turning his hand to training, modestly downplays his recent success, deflecting any praise to the team behind him.
“All the horses are going well,” Grantham said on Tabradio.
“The team behind me are always up first, out there doing all the hard work and I’m taking all the credit for it.
“It’s a big team effort and it’s going well.”
Opportunistic’s claim for honours on the weekend is twofold for Grantham, aside from bragging rights, he gets to see the son of So You Think go around again before setting him aside for potentially bigger heights later in the year.
Grantham says Opportunistic has not gone backwards since winning the Listed Raconteur Stakes (1400m) at Bunbury two weeks back.
It’s a fair warning to rivals as he was ultra impressive, claiming a feature event at his second race start to keep his undefeated record intact.
Elite Missile kept him honest over the concluding stages, but he had enough in hand to defeat him by a short neck after running on from ninth.
Based on the past fortnight, Grantham says he can’t see any visible signs why Opportunistic won’t run well again in his bid for a winning hat-trick.
“He’s done nothing wrong, he’s a pretty cool customer at home,” Grantham said.
“He’ll have his final gallop on Wednesday and has done everything right.
“Going forward we are going to be at set weight and penalties now, so we meet everyone equal.
“It will be a lot tougher for him, but it will give us some confidence to see what he can do.
“If he does go well, you know that we’re putting him away for a reason and come back for the summer.”
Grantham won last year’s Belmont Guineas with Luvnwar and in 2022 he saddled Devoted.
Before Saturday, Grantham has two runners at Northam on Wednesday, declaring Midnight Star in race one to be a top winning chance.
Julio Santarelli