Tony Pike is hoping to collect two wins in quick succession with Agera (NZ) (Complacent), who will back up from Saturday’s success into the Richard Bright Memorial (1550m) at Cambridge Synthetic on Wednesday.
A son of Complacent, Agera faced a decent task in a fresh state at Te Rapa in early July when finishing fifth, but he was back in firing form a month later at the Waikato venue.
Stepping up to a mile, Agera was given a comfortable run midfield by jockey Matt Cartwright before coming out on top in a thrilling five-way finish to the Rating 65 contest.
Lightly-raced with just 10 starts under his belt as a five-year-old, Agera added a second victory to his record giving Pike confidence to push on to what is a sentimental race for the local horseman.
“He probably was a bit unlucky fresh-up, getting caught three-wide and just peaked on his run late,” he said.
“He’s been a little bit of an enigma and although his form has always been solid, it’s nice to get another win on the board.
“We entered him in the Richard Bright Memorial just to see how he came through Saturday, we thought he could go close to winning and if he won well, it would be a nice race for him.
“Although it’s a quick back-up, he’s trialled and done a lot of work at the poly track here at Cambridge so that shouldn’t worry him at all.
“Obviously it’s a very good stake and I was a very good friend of Richard Bright’s as well, so it’s nice to have a runner in the race.”
The win was the first for Cartwright on New Zealand soil after recently moving over from Australia, and he will take the ride aboard Agera again on at the midweek meeting.
“He came to ride trackwork pretty much straight away on the Monday he arrived, and he’s been riding for us since then,” Pike said.
“It’s great to give him an early win and get the monkey off his back which is great going into the spring. He should pick up plenty of rides going forward as some of the better horses start coming out.
“He should be a good addition to the New Zealand riding ranks over the next few months.”
Elsewhere, Pike will have a relatively quiet week on the racing front but is looking forward to a mix of his proven performers and up-and-coming prospects returning to the races in the coming weeks.
“We’ll have another couple of trials then head to Hawke’s Bay on the 7th (of September), that will be our time to kick off the spring team,” he said.
“We’ll be pretty busy from then on.”
