Osborn, who lives at Rutherford and bases his team at Sawyers Gully, had a driving treble and training double at Newcastle, which included qualifying Lifeontopofdeworld for the C3-C4 Menangle Country Series final on October 30. He also trained and drove Whata Dilemma to victory after steering John Downing’s Ball Bay to a narrow win.

After already delaying a Melbourne Cup holiday to drive for Clayton Harmey at the October 30 Menangle meeting, Osborn hopes to have a stay of proceedings for an appeal against a 14-day suspension granted on Monday to steer his own pacer in the Country Series final. 

He incurred the driving suspension at Tamworth on October 16 but put that setback aside to continue his strong start to the season.

“It’s been a long while since I had a training double,” Osborn said. “I might have done it four years ago when I was at Cessnock. As for a driving treble, I couldn’t tell you the last time I did that, so it was good.”

After training only one winner last season, Osborn has increased his team from “five or six” to 10 in work and looked to improve the quality of pacers. Whata Dilemma is among the newcomers to his stable and will back up at Newcastle on Wednesday. 

At Menangle, Ellalong trainer-driver Michael Formosa’s Ultimate Art was a strong second to Inter Dominion champion Lennytheshark, which ran a 1.55.8 mile rate over 2300m.

Maitland reinsman Brad Elder was another standout performer at Newcastle on Saturday night, driving The Plainsman and Majors Blue Jean to wins.