Mick on Monday: Summer holiday on cards for Te Rapa giant slayer

Jockey Matt Cartwright got his tactics spot on with Agera at Te Rapa yesterday. Photo/ Kenton Wright

For the giant killer of Te Rapa yesterday, the question isn’t how far he can go but how long?

Agera thrashed Group 1 stars Sharp N Smart (fourth) and Ladies Man (fifth) in the open 1600m, jockey Matt Cartwright getting his tactics spot on a day after riding at Flemington.

He sat up outside the leader in a no-tempo race and kicked clear for an effortless win and punters got plenty with Agera backed into $2.40.

While big-name horses like Ladies Man and Sharp N Smart always attract support, they were simply weighted to not be competitive but needing the racing with bigger targets to come this spring.

But the same can’t be said for Agera, who has now won three of his last four for Cambridge trainer Tony Pike.

“He isn’t the soundest horse so might only have one more run this campaign, maybe two,” says Pike.

“Once the tracks start to firm up he can go for a spell and come back in the autumn.

“It is a shame because obviously there are some good races for a handy horse like him over the summer but you can still win good money in races like this in spring, autumn and even winter.

“This race ended up perfect for him today, dropping hugely in weight but with those at the top of the book carrying so much and still on the way up.”

Both Sharp N Smart, who sat in the one-one on the slow pace, and Ladies Man, who got a long way out of his ground early, were pass marks but will still need to show rapid improvement to be a factor in the Howden Mile back at Te Rapa in 12 days, with 1600m looking a bit pointy for them at this stage of their careers.

In other Howden news, Matt Cameron has been booked to replace the injured Michael McNab on La Crique for the Group 1 at Te Rapa, the wonderfully consistent mare second favourite with the TAB behind Legarto.

Yesterday’s sprint feature saw a huge win for one of New Zealand’s most under-rated gallopers in Midnight Edition.

He was a factor in some of our best three-year-old races last term and has returned looking bigger and stronger for trainer Bruce Wallbank.

If he was in a bigger stable with better-known colours, Midnight Edition would have plenty more hype about him but he gets a chance to create some more of his own when he heads next to the $120,000 black type sprint at Otaki on October 11.

HANNON DEJA VU

It seems like a lifetime ago since Akuta first won the Hannon Memorial so he doubled down just to remind harness punters how good he is at Oamaru yesterday.

Akuta overcame sitting parked to outmuscle his opponents in the 2600m standing start feature, a race he won three years ago as a three-year-old.

He has spent half of his life since then away from racing after what looked a career-ending injury but was patiently brought back to racing trim by trainer-driver Mark Purdon and his right-hand man in the Waikato, former NZ Cup-winning driver Tony Shaw.

“A lot of the credit has to go to Tony Shaw and he [Akuta] is getting fitter all the time,” said Purdon.

Akuta was always going to take time to trim the internal fat away but he has improved about a length after each of his four starts this campaign so he is working his way back to being one of our more feared pacers.

He might need to find another four or five lengths if Aussie megastars Leap To Fame and Swayzee return to New Zealand for the NZ Cup at Addington in November but at least he is heading in the right direction.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.