A Season of Success continues ...

Te Akau Racing owners enjoyed a record-breaking 2017/18 season of Group and Listed wins - 17 in total including five at the elite Group 1 level!

It's time to reflect on one of the undoubted "stars of the 17/18 show" - Karaka Million and Group 1 Manawatu Sires' winner Avantage who was also a close-up second in the Group 1 Diamond Stakes from a wide draw ... as George Simon said when she crossed the Karaka Million line "game, set, match Avantage" ...

Avantage (2 f Fastnet Rock - Asavant, by Zabeel) is a dream filly, at the forefront of providing Te Akau with consecutive Champion Two-Year-Old titles and possibly Horse of the Year.

Far from humble beginnings, Avantage is by champion sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill), from a stakes winning, Group One placed, mare by champion sire Zabeel (Sir Tristram), who surpassed his illustrious father when notching over 264 stakes winners.

A debut winner in October at Riccarton, Avantage made it four in a row when winning the Karaka Million (Restricted Listed, 1200m) in January, clocked the fastest last 600m (32.8) of the day with a massive sprint for second to stable-mate Sword Of Osman (Savabeel) in the Sistema Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m), and culminated her six start (five wins and a second) two-year-old season with a huge victory in the $225,000 Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr. 1, 1400m) on 31 March at Awapuni.

Adjudged classy and among those likely to finish strongest - in any of her races - Avantage is the ultimate thoroughbred investment for owners in the Te Akau Avantage Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM).

Seemingly with the world at her feet, Avantage was purchased by Te Akau principal David Ellis for $210,000 at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, from the Oaks Stud draft, and extended a terrific record for Te Akau in the Sires' Produce Stakes. New Zealand Champion Two-Year-Old and stable-mate Melody Belle (Commands) had impressively won the corresponding race in 2016, also trained by Stephen Autridge & Jamie Richards, while another Champion Two-Year-Old, Maroofity (Maroof), won it for Te Akau in 2003, and Kindacross (Cape Cross) in 2005.

Given what Avantage achieved in her first season of racing, she has a value for which you could write your own ticket, and conjures thoughts of another outstanding Te Akau filly in Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago).

New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year, Champion Middle Distance Horse (twice), Champion Staying Horse, Princess Coup won four Group One races in New Zealand, winning more prize money domestically than any other thoroughbred (total $4.2m), with notable Group One seconds in the Australian Cup, BMW Stakes, Ranvet Stakes, MacKinnon Stakes, and third in a Caulfield Cup.

Ellis purchased Princess Coup for $260,000 at the Gold Coast Yearling Sales - one of three Group One winners, alongside Tell A Tale (Tale Of The Cat) and Costa Viva (Encosta De Lago), he has acquired there - and once retired from racing she was sold for A$3 million.

By champion Australian sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill), the dam of Avantage, Asavant (Zabeel), won the Warstep Stakes (Listed, 2000m) as a three-year-old at Riccarton, gaining a Group One placing when finishing third in the Darci Brahma International Stakes (2000m).

From a family started by Southlander Willy Calder, Avantage is one of two named foals from the mare, both of whom have won. Her dam Asavant is a three-quarter sister to the dam of WA Guineas (Gr. 2, 1600m) winner King Saul (Flying Pegasus) and a half-sister to Group One-winning Hong Kong sprinter D B Pin (Darci Brahma). Her second dam is the Group Three winner Pins ‘N' Needles (Pins), a sister to 2015 Canterbury Breeders Stakes (Gr. 3, 1400m) winner Miss Alice and a half-sister to the stakes winner Coup Fields (Carolingian). The Sires' Produce win by Avantage gave her Coolmore-based sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill) his 33rd individual Group One winner.