"It's great to get the opportunity to have a strong gallop on a surface like this because it's often difficult to get these horses ready for the Hastings carnival," said trainer Lance Noble.
Brave Centaur will be missing from Te Rapa's Foxbridge Plate on Saturday week.
"It's too close to the Makfi and he's a horse that does his best work when fresh. He helps get himself ready because he's so competitive.
"There is no way of giving him an easy run."
Brave Centaur looked exceptional when rushing quickly through the grades last season and will be in peak shape for the Makfi.
One who will be in the Foxbridge is Miss Pelear, who won her 1040m heat in even quicker time - 60.62 seconds. Noel Harris made a special one-ride trip to Te Teko to handle Miss Pelear.
The under-rated mare led and kicked strongly to beat Never Surrender and Magic Shaft. "She's pulled up very well from that effort," said co-trainer Keith Hawtin.
Zinko led throughout his open heat to beat off a solid challenge from Choice Bro, clocking 62.4.
The solidly built Choice Bro had a good blow after the heat. He is one of the team John Sargent will next week transfer to his new Sydney stable.
Sargent produced a stylish 2-year-old winner in one of the first two juvenile heats of the 2013-14 racing season.
She is a filly by first-season sire Tavistock from Miraculous Miss, who narrowly beat an Exceed and Excel-Sachina filly, trained by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young.
"She'd have won by a lot more if she hadn't been concentrating on looking at the winning post," said rider Alex Forbes.
The other 2-year-old heat was won by the Busuttin-Young trained Thorn Park-Go Lucky filly from Stralis (Publishing-Dash of Love) and an Iffraaj-Foxy Blonde colt.
