That was how Emma Turnbull had planned to tackle the Oberon Night 19^th Jan Pace (1,730 metres) with Poppy Cee on Wednesday night and that is exactly how things played out at the Bathurst Paceway.

The veteran eight-year-old, trained by her mother Wendy Turnbull, used the sprint lane to perfection to take his record to 17 wins from 127 starts.

He had spent a bulk of the journey sitting in the trail behind Sabrage after going from barrier one.

“That’s exactly how I had the race planned, it worked perfectly really for him,” Turnbull said.

“I seen [Sabrage] him kick at the top of the straight and that left me flat-footed for a stride … but he done very well, he done a great job.”

Poppy Cee clocked a hot 1:55.7 winning mile rate, beating out another veteran in Beetson ($4.10, Doug Hewitt) by 2¼m, with Intransit ($12.60, Amanda Turnbull) a head further back in third.