Accomplished apprentice Jacob Opperman moved into the top five on the Adelaide jockeys table with a treble at last Saturday’s Morphettville meeting.
Opperman brought up his first success when the five-year-old Shootoose ($2.70 favourite) won the benchmark 66 handicap over 1200 metres.
Shootoose came from midfield to score for Gawler-based co-trainers Aaron Bain and Ned Taylor, who are enjoying a purple patch of form with five winners from 17 runners for the month to last Saturday.
Opperman scored the second leg of his treble when Chipson ($4.40) won the 1539-metre Class 2 handicap.
Chipson ran on from midfield to score by a length for Bordertown trainer Jeff Searle, completing a productive 24 hours for the Searle family. Jeffrey’s brother Gary, sister-in-law Nichole and niece Brianna Callanan had won at The Valley the night before with Secret War in the 955-metre fifth heat of the 55 Second Challenge series.
Ridden by Kayla Crowther, Secret War gave the Searle/Callanan team their first interstate win.
Opperman completed his treble on La Defense ($2.90 favourite) in a rating 64 handicap over 1050 metres,
A last-start Gawler winner out of the Muray Bridge stable of Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea, La Defense came from midfield to beat La Beans by 1¼ lengths.
The treble took Opperman to 12 Adelaide wins for the season, equal fourth and six off the pace-setting Jake Toeroek.
A couple for Callan
Callan Murray was another jockey with his eye in last weekend, kicking off on Saturday with a popular win on $1.95 favourite Poison Chalice for Horsham trainer Paul Preusker in the 1800-metre benchmark 72.
Poison Chalice now has four wins from eight starts and bigger wins are likely in future.
Murray made it two wins for the weekend when he scored on First Toson ($4.80) for Peter Hardacre in a 1350-metre maiden plate at Strathalbyn on Sunday.
Trio for Tourneur
Dominic Tourneur went one better than Murray with three winners over the weekend.
At Morphettville, Tourneur scored for Murray Bridge trainer Sue Murphy on Hasta La Fiorente ($2.70) in a benchmark 78 over 2500 metres.
At Strathalbyn, Tourneur won on the Scott Westover-trained San Lucido ($2.70 favourite) in the 1200-metre maiden plate and the Scott Whittle-prepared Final Chance ($6.50) in a rating 56 handicap.
Force prevails
The major prize at the Strathalbyn meeting stayed home, with local co-trainers Wayne Francis and Glen Kent all smiles after Pivotal Force ($5.50) charged home under Justin Potter to win the 1350-metre Vignerons Cup.

Two for Toeroek
Jake Toeroek too the riding honours at Balaklava on Wednesday with a back-to-back double, winning a 1050-metre maiden on the Richard and Chantelle Jolly-trained Regal Dancer ($3.30) and a 1600-metre maiden on Hit The Slopes ($1.45 favourite) for Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea.
Elsewhere on the card, Murray Bridge trainer Garret Lynch had his first winner since returning from a 3½-month suspension for animal-welfare breaches when Lachlan Neindorf steered Enterprise Jewel ($6) to victory in a 1600-metre benchmark 62.