The first round saw plenty of rails fall, with just four going clear and inside time. Massie, Tegan Fitzsimon (Christchurch) on Alacazam MH, Tim Myers (Taranaki) on Pick Me NZPH and Jake Lambert (Cambridge) on Quality NZPH all came back for a second round.
From that, Fitzsimon, Massie and Myers were all still tied on zero faults.
The jump-off was a superb display of the depth of New Zealand's rising talent. Fitzsimon was first out on Alcazam and despite a little heart-stopping moment at the second-to-last, they finished clear in 34.96 seconds.
Next was Massie who also had a hair-raising moment at the same fence but everything stayed up and they stopped the clock at 33.68.
Myers took a couple of rails and finished with eight faults and a time fault, but was by far the fastest time of the round.
"Tim was always going to be the danger man," said Massie, who is trained by Oliver Edgecombe and Lisa Coupe.
"Everything just went to plan for us today ... well, except when I dropped the reins coming into the second to last and even though we lost all momentum, Ludo saved me.
"Leopoldo [Palacios] built a very technical course out there that really gave the spectators something to watch."
Massie, who rides and works on the 1200ha family farm east of Dannevirke, is heading to Ireland in the winter, where he will compete in showjumping.