Racing: Sam Collett clear on conundrum of Avantage's rivals

Avantage. Photo / Getty

Nobody understands the difficulties facing Avantage's rivals in today's $200,000 Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha better than jockey Sam Collett.

Collett will partner second-favourite Levante in the last Group 1 race of the New Zealand thoroughbred season but has also been the regular rider of race rivals Coventina Bay and Travelling Light, three of the main threats to $1.80 favourite Avantage.

Collett says as good as the mares she has been riding are, two of the trio lack what could be a telling weapon.

"All three of the mares I have ridden are top class, but I think with Levante and Coventina Bay, they are better when you ride them bad," says Collett.

"Levante is quite a unique horse to ride, in that if she is tailed off and you are scrubbing the ears off her, she will eventually pick up and just fly.

"Yet in the trials, or even races where I have been able to settle her handier, she hasn't shown quite that same zip. She is still good but not as good.

"She just seems happier when you let her find her feet early and are negative on her, and that looks bad from the stands, but I think that is how she likes it best.

"But the problem with that is a horse like Avantage can go forward, get outside the leaders and run her last 600m in 32.5 seconds, and no matter how good the back markers are, they can't pick her up.

"Levante feels great and is ready to go but the way she likes to race the sectionals make it hard on her."

Collett says the same applies to Coventina Bay, who will be partnered by Craig Grylls today.

"I rode her a bit handier when she won the Cuddle Stakes last start, and while she was good, she didn't quite wind up as fast as she does when ridden quieter early.

"And that could be the problem on Saturday. They might need to be cuddled up to show their best, whereas Avantage can get handy and then still sprint just as fast."

That is why Avantage is an eight-time Group 1 winner, whereas her key rivals are yet to taste success at the elite level, admittedly from lesser opportunities.

The one who has won a Group 1 and could end up handy is Travelling Light, who trainer Ben Foote expects to improve on her last-start fourth at Tauranga, and that could make her the place value up on the speed in a race that may lack pressure.

With her ability to settle handy, handle both wet and dry tracks and the fact the weight-for-age scale favours Avantage so much, maybe the only real question is whether she is still at her peak for the last race of her season.

"She is where she needs to be. She just loves turning up for work," says trainer Jamie Richards.

As good as Levante, Conventina Bay and the other mares in the Breeders are, Avantage deserves to be $1.80 to win her ninth Group 1.