Avantage Wednesday Hit Out Pleases Richards

Runaway leader of the New Zealand Black Type Premiership, Avantage , pleased trainer Jamie Richards with her exhibition gallop at Te Rapa on Wednesday ahead of her tilt at a seventh elite-level victory at the Waikato track in 10 days' time. According to racingnews.co.nz, the Fastnet Rock mare will contest the Gr1 BCD Sprint (1400m) with Richards revealing she needed the hit-out after last racing at Trentham last month when recording back-to-back wins in the Gr1 Telegraph (1200m) – see below. "She's a month between runs and up to 1400m, so she needed to do something and we gave her a similar prep last year," Richards stated. "I was pleased with the work. She looked good to me in her action and Opie (Bosson, jockey) was pleased with how she felt." Suggesting she'll continue to improve off the hit out, Richards conceded, "She's going to have to be at her best because there is a very exciting mare in Levante coming through the grades, and it's going to be a wonderful contest." A $1.8 million earner, Avantage was bought by Te Akau principal David Ellis for $210,000 at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale from the Oaks Stud consignment.