Racing: Avantage gains advantage in Group 1 Breeders Stakes at Te Rapa

Avantage. Photo / File

Avantage and jockey Danielle Johnson appear to be the big winners from the postponement of the Group 1 Breeders Stakes.

The Breeders was to be at Te Aroha last Saturday until that track got slippery and the meeting was abandoned after race three, with the subsequent move to Te Rapa seeing Siracusa — who was scratched last week because of a bee sting but ready to race tomorrow — also a winner from the move.

If Te Rapa was to present firm tomorrow then second and third favourites Levante and Coventina Bay would have been others to win out of the delay, because their trainers weren't keen on the wet track at Te Aroha.

But Waikato Racing chief executive Andrew Castles expects the track to play in the soft7 range so that negates any perceived help for Levante and Coventina Bay and aids long-time favourite Avantage.

Not only does she race well on soft tracks but has won two from three at Te Rapa and has a better draw than she had at Te Aroha last week so looks well placed to control the race.

That could also mean Johnson, this season's premiership leader, is a winner from the change as last week she was engaged to ride Siracusa but with Opie Bosson in Sydney she is now on the $1.70 favourite.

As special as Levante and Coventina Bay are, they face giving Avantage a start in a race which doesn't appear to have a lot of tempo and if the best version of Avantage turns up — the version that has won two Telegraphs, the Railway and a BCD Sprint — she should win.

So will that best version turn up?

"She is right where she needs to be, we couldn't be happier," says trainer Jamie Richards.