Chance to Dance - Exhibition Gallop

Multiple stakes' winner Chance To Dance (9 g Teofilo - Crystal Ballet, by Royal Academy) had an exhibition gallop between races on Sunday at Matamata, in preparation for the $100,000 Avondale Cup (Gr. 2, 2400m) on 16 February at Ellerslie.

Ridden by Te Akau apprentice Nik
Bakar, Chance to Dance worked over a lap of the course and quickened home,
nicely held, in 36 for the last 600m. The work pleased both the rider and
trainer Jamie Richards.

“The Avondale Cup is a handicap
so he's going to carry a bit of weight there and we will use that as a nice
blowout for the Auckland Cup which is set weights and penalties,” Richards
said. “We'd like to see him running home strongly in the Avondale Cup.”

Under the same conditions, Chance
to Dance carried 56kgs for third last time out in the Trentham Stakes (Gr. 3,
2100m) and while the prospect of 60kgs in the Avondale Cup is quite an impost
the timing sets up well for the $500,000 Auckland Cup (Gr. 1, 3200m) on 9 March
at Ellerslie.

The winner of seven races from
2000m - 2400m, Chance to Dance has shown his liking for the Ellerslie course
when winning the OMF Stakes (Gr. 3, 2000m).

Owned by the Fortuna Chance to
Dance Syndicate (Mgr: John Galvin), the former European and Australian galloper
was purchased by David Ellis for $260,000 at the inaugural Inglis Chairman's
Sale of Elite Racing Prospects in Sydney.

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