Avantage on Exhibition at Te Rapa

Trainer Jamie Richards stuck to the recipe with Avantage (5 m Fastnet Rock - Asavant, by Zabeel), giving the six-time Group One winner an exhibition gallop between races on Wednesday at Te Rapa.

Richards did similar when Avantage galloped boldly during an exhibition in January last year at Matamata, prior to winning the Telegraph (Gr. 1, 1200m), and having defended her title in the Telegraph (Gr. 1, 1200m) recently at Trentham, she is now preparing for the BCD Group Sprint (Gr. 1, 1400m) on 13 February at Te Rapa.

“She's a month between runs and up to 1400 metres, so she needed to do something and we gave her a similar prep last year,” Richards said.

“I was pleased with the work. She looked good to me in her action and Opie (Bosson) was pleased with how she felt. She'll improve again for that and she's going to have to be at her best because there is a very exciting mare in Levante (Proisir) coming through the grades and it's going to be a wonderful contest.”

Crowned Champion Two-Year-Old after winning five of her six juvenile starts, including the $1m Karaka Million (Listed, 1200m) and Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr. 1, 1400m), Avantage won the Birthday Card Stakes (Gr. 3, 1200m) on Golden Slipper Day at Rosehill, as a three-year-old, but really come of age at four and five with a further five Group One wins from 1200m to 2000m.

A $1.8m earner, she was bought by Te Akau principal David Ellis for $210,000 at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling, from the Oaks Stud draft, and registered 13 wins and five seconds from 23 starts for the Te Akau Avantage Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM).

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz