KEY POINTS:
Sally Gillespie has a small team of horses in training at Karaka, headed by the front-running Agamemnon, an impressive winner of yesterday's $65,000 Matamata Cup.
Gillespie works for Soliloquy Lodge training a team of racehorses that have achieved outstanding results on the racetrack.
Agamemnon had to be good
to win the 1600m feature overcoming a lack of racing experience to lead throughout in the hands of Cory Parish scoring by a long neck over Mohican Brave with a further half-head back to Mill Vinnie (third).
The finish was dominated by runners who sat on the speed throughout.
Kaatoon and the favourite Run Like Al both made pleasing ground at the finish. Kaatoon was two lengths away from the winner at the finish and was doing her best work late.
Run Like Al did not help his win prospects missing the start and losing four lengths, finishing solidly late along the rail.
Agamemnon cannot read a racebook and took no interest in the fact that a racehorse with only five race starts was taking on proven 1600m performers like Kaatoon, Run Like Al and Floydeboy.
Conformation problems in both front legs delayed the debut of the 5-year-old who has a high cruising speed on the pace and a massive desire to fight in a tight finish, as rivals found out yesterday.
"We took him to the yearling sales but because of the slight conformation issues we passed him in and took him home, broke him in and threw him into a paddock," said part-owner David Moore. "The paddock has the nickname of death row as it's usually the last stop before horses go elsewhere but we left him in there until he was a 3-year-old and he came into training and ran third at his first trial.
"I told my father that he was a good mover as he could gallop around the paddock very quickly and that's how he races.
"The horse does a lot of swimming and a bit of galloping work on the beach but the big thing is he's a sensible swimmer and very cautious which means we can get the mileage into him in the pool.
"He's had the saddle on his back once since he last raced and that underlines how fit and well he is at the moment."
CASTLE HEIGHTS showed plenty of determination when it mattered in the home straight fighting back after being headed by Pretty Vegas to score a narrow victory.
The 4-year-old completed an impressive winning hat-trick sitting outside the leader.
He was briefly headed by Pretty Vegas but fought back with determination to defeat that runner by three-quarters of a length. Dan's Best was the same margin away third.
Ruakaka-based trainers Donna and Dean Logan and Chris Gibbs have a high opinion of the son of Golan and his career record makes impressive reading - three wins and a third placing - from five starts.
BRUCE HERD is a pretty good judge of racing form as a professional jockey but he was caught out as many punters were when O'Ceirins Angel won the $100,000 Postponed Stoney Bridge Stakes at Hawera yesterday.
Herd has been the regular rider of the under-rated O'Ceirins Angel but chose to ride the Lance Noble-trained Irlanda in the Group Three event.
Buddy Lammas profited from Herd's decision when teaming with O'Ceirins Angel to score a determined three-quarters of a length victory over the hot favourite Keepa Cruisin. The same margin away in third position was the pace-setting Insouciant.
Lammas gave the 5-year-old a dream sit close to the lead throughout and had an uninterrupted passage in the home straight whereas Keepa Cruisin had a bumping duel with the fourth-placed Eye Me Up before getting clear in the race to the line.
The Foxton-trained mare has been a consistent performer for Sandie Cookson scoring seven wins and four minor placings from 23 starts.