Sometimes second is as good as a win and that might be the case with Travelling Light's formline going into tomorrow's $100,000 Travis Stakes at Te Rapa.
The high-class mare hasn't won a race since her Group 1 success in the Levin Classic at Trentham 15 months ago, although she has spent much of that time sidelined.
In that same 15-month period two of Travelling Light's main rivals tomorrow have been big winners, with Savy Yong Blonk winning four races and Our Hail Mary five, so punters could be excused for wondering why Travelling Light is a tight second-favourite for the 2000m Group 2.
It is largely because her last-start second was to the nine-time Group 1 winner Avantage, in which Travelling Light dead-heated for second with Coventina Bay and beat home Levante.
"I think that form is every bit as good as winning form in any other race," says Travelling Light's trainer Ben Foote.