Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)
Agera’s coming-of-age campaign has carried him all the way up to black-type level, flying home to score a last-gasp victory in Friday’s Listed Team Wealleans Matamata Cup (1600m).
Coming into the 2024-25 season, Agera (Complacent) was a two-race winner from 18 career starts. He had placed on another eight occasions, had earned $81,490 and had a rating of 70.
Agera’s six-year-old season has now produced four wins from only six appearances, adding another $127,250 to his earnings. His rating had already risen to 86 before Friday’s Matamata Cup heroics.
Matt Cartwright, who has now recorded four wins from eight rides on Agera, took up a midfield position in eighth place on Friday as Electric Time enjoyed an easy time out in front.
Electric Time and Above The Clouds kicked away from the chasers after straightening for home and seemed to have the finish of the $80,000 feature all to themselves. Above The Clouds briefly gained the upper hand before Electric Time kicked back hard on the inside to regain the lead.
But then Agera burst out of the pack. Cartwright drove him over the top of the leaders within the space of a few big bounds, snatching victory right on the finish line with a short-head margin over Electric Time. The third-placed Above The Clouds was another head away.
“He didn’t look like he was any chance turning for home,” trainer Tony Pike said. “It was a very good effort to sprint the way he did and make up that amount of ground off a slow tempo.
“He’s obviously racing in career-best form this time in. The ability has always been there, but he had a few soundness issues as a young horse. He’s matured through those now, and as a six-year-old, he’s become more of a battle-hardened racehorse.”
Pike was initially intending for the Matamata Cup to be the final start of the breakthrough campaign for Agera, who has been racing twice a month since the end of May. But Friday’s performance might force a rethink.
“He needs a little bit of give in the ground, so we were thinking we might turn him out after today if it seemed like the rain was stopping and the tracks were drying out,” Pike said. “But after he’s won so well today, and with the possibility of some rain around in the lower North Island towards the end of next week, we might consider giving him one more run in the Thompson Handicap (Gr.3, 1600m) at Trentham next weekend.”
Agera was bred by Hamish and Karyn McQuade and is by Complacent out of the McQuades’ Pentire mare Shelly Bee. Herself a placegetter on the racetrack, Shelly Bee is now the dam of two stakes winners. Her daughter Ima Roca Bee (by El Roca) took out the Listed Ryder Stakes (1200m) in 2021.
Mapperley Stud offered Agera in Book 2 of Karaka 2021, where he was bought by Waikato Bloodstock for $70,000.
Agera’s 24-start career has now produced six wins, eight placings and $208,740 in prize-money for owners Gee Gee Investments Ltd.
The Matamata Cup was the second leg of the inaugural Prezzy Card Northern Country Cups Bonus Series, which began with Pacheco’s victory in the Poverty Bay Turf Club Cup (2600m) at Taupo on October 10. The series carries a total of $485,000 in stakes and bonuses including a $50,000 winner-takes-all prize.
The new initiative from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) and the Taupo Racing Club will see seven Country Cups staged across the North Island from October to December, with horses earning points for top-four finishes and required to contest at least three races, including the $100,000 Harcourts Taupo Cup (2000m).
Sponsored by leading prepaid gift provider Prezzy Card, the series is designed to encourage participation, create a competitive narrative between regional racedays, and culminate in a high-stakes finale on Harcourts Taupo Cup Day on December 28. The Harcourts Taupo Cup itself has received a $15,000 stakes uplift from last season.
The remaining legs of the series are the $50,000 Wanganui Steelformers Waverley Cup (2200m) at Waverley on Sunday, the $80,000 Mode Technology Feilding Cup (2100m) at Tauherenikau on November 1, the $35,000 DMAK Electrical Waipukurau Cup (2100m) at Waipukurau on November 16, the $30,000 Duncan Dental Tauranga Twilight Cup (2100m) at Tauranga on December 12, and the $100,000 Harcourts Taupo Cup (2000m) at Taupo on December 28.
Pacheco and Agera are now the joint leaders in the series with five points each.
Vovak and Electric Time have three points, Golden and Above The Clouds have two points, and Tempest Moon and Florin have each earned one point.
