Racing: New high beckons Levante ahead of $200,000 BCD Sprint

Levante won the Westbury Classic at Ellerslie in her last start last month but faces a tough field in the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa on Saturday. Photo / Trish Dunell

Excitement machine Levante may have reached a new peak going into the race of her life at Te Rapa on Saturday.

The stunning last-start winner of the Westbury Classic at Ellerslie will take on six-time Group 1-winner Avantage, Tarzino hero Callsign Mav and former Railway winner Julius in the $200,000 BCD Sprint, a race so deep, it rivals Melody Belle's attempt on the all-time New Zealand record for Group 1 wins in the Herbie Dyke on the same day.

The meeting also hosts the Waikato Guineas and the Ellis Classic for 3-year-old fillies, so ranks as one of New Zealand's great racedays.

But the return clash of the first three home in last month's Railway (Avantage, Julius and Levante) and Callsign Mav could be one of the highlights of the summer, and while co-trainer Ken Kelso isn't getting overconfident, he says Levante is exactly where she needs to be.

"When Sam [Collett] got off her, she said that is as good as she has ever worked," Kelso told the Herald.

"She has done everything right since the Westbury, so we are happy with her but we also know how tough this week will be.

"It looks like there could be even 11 horses in the race, and if she is going to be last, then Avantage and some of the others could be a long way ahead of her."

While coming from last is a hard way to win Group 1 sprint races, Kelso says there will be no instructions to Collett to try and stay handier even after Levante got seriously detached from her opponents before roaring home to win last start.

"That is how she feels comfortable and races best, so we are not going to go pushing her to stay handier. I think as she gets up in distance, that may come, but not this weekend."

The slightly larger than expected entries for the BCD and the possibility that could disadvantage Levante saw Avantage shorten to $1.90 with the TAB and Levante stay at $2.20 tonight ahead of tomorrow's barrier draw for both races.

Melody Belle is into $1.30 pre-draw for the Herbie Dyke, victory in which would give her sole ownership of the record for Group 1 wins by a New Zealand trained thoroughbred.

That gives Te Akau favourites in both races on Saturday as well as Amarelinha in the Ellis Classic, and Brando (Flemington) and Kahma Lass (Randwick) kicking of their Australian careers in group races on Saturday.

Before then, trainer Jamie Richards will send talented juvenile Sword Of State out at $1.22 in a small juvenile field on his home track of Matamata.

A last-start third at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, when he went too hard in front, Sword Of State should cruise home as he works toward the Sistema Stakes at Ellerslie on March 13.

That is shaping as the first major clash of all the juvenile big guns for the season after some were ineligible for the Karaka Million.