Avantage adds to Te Akau’s haul

Although success for the Te Akau stable proved elusive across the Tasman on Saturday the barn still claimed the last Group I race this season in New Zealand with Avantage’s win in the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes

(1600m) at Te Rapa.

Plucky mare Avantage made it Group I win No 9 with a thrilling victory. The Jamie Richards-trained five-year-old started a red-hot favourite and racing a small but quality lineup of mares on a tricky

slow8 surface, Avantage and jockey Danielle Johnson dictated the tempo by sitting outside pacemaker Familia throughout.

Asked for a serious effort shortly after entering the home straight, Avantage found a small margin on Travelling Light and Coventina Bay and held them both at bay in a desperate finish. Travelling Light and Coventina Bay dead-heated for second with second favourite Levante running on to take fourth.

With Richards at Randwick in Sydney to oversee stable runners Amarelinha, Probabeel and Entriviere, it was up to his father, Paul, to take the congratulations after the race.

‘‘Tough isn’t she,’’ Richards said. ‘‘She did a wee bit of work early but got a nice drag along outside the leader and was just too tough. Danielle went a bit wider on the home corner to find some better going, which left her a sitting duck. To her credit she toughed it out.’’

Johnson paid tribute to the Fastnet Rock mare that she admitted had changed her life.

‘‘Every time she heard the horses come around her, she just fought that little bit more,’’ she said. ‘‘She has been just a horse of a lifetime for me. I was lucky enough to get on her as a two-year-old and developed a relationship from then on.’’

Johnson has ridden Avantage 10 times for six wins, with four of those at Group I level.

Jamie Richards broke the national record for wins in a season as Avantage became victory No 144 for the Te Akau Racing stable in 2020-21, eclipsing the 143-win mark set by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman in 2017-18.