The Ciaron Maher and Ethan Brown partnership added another feature race success to their impressive 2025 résumé with victory in the Listed Bagot Handicap at Flemington.
Future History delivered the stable the final black-type win of the Australian racing year, taking out the $175,000 staying contest over 2800 metres.
The win was a familiar result for the pair, who also combined to claim the Bagot Handicap three years earlier with San Huberto.
Brown said the triumph was a perfect way to finish a year that had already delivered major highlights.
“It’s been a great ’25 and it’s great to top it off with a Stakes win with Ciaron,” Brown said.
“He’s been my number one seed throughout last season and good horses like Jimmysstar and Light Infantryman were big highlights.
“All’s well that ends well and hopefully we can carry it on to next year.”
Facing blustery conditions at Flemington’s first New Year’s Eve meeting, Brown elected to let 60kg topweight Future History stride forward and dictate.
The experienced stayer was able to control the pace through the middle section of the race, conserving enough energy to respond when pressure arrived.
Garachico loomed early in the straight before Wealdstone produced a late challenge, but Future History proved too strong.
The $3.20 favourite scored by three-quarters-of-a-length from Wealdstone ($31), with stablemate Interpretation ($6) finishing the same margin away in third.
“He’s a dream to ride, he just gets himself into a lovely rhythm, I just worked with him, and I didn’t want to overthink the wind too much,” Brown said.
“He had a big weight, so he was better off just rolling along then I clicked him up at the 700 and he was full of running all the way through the line.”
The Bagot victory was the ninth win of Future History’s career, adding to his standout success in the Group 3 The Bart Cummings (2500m) in 2023.
Punters can review markets for upcoming staying races via the Australian betting sites list.