Star Fillies Provide Thrilling Start to NZB Filly of the Year Series

Saturday’s $70,000 Group 3 Hawke’s Bay Breeders’ Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings was the first leg of the 47th New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series, and it has set the bar high with a thrilling battle down the home straight.

Star billing in the lead-up to the race deservedly belonged to last season’s champion two-year-old Avantage.

The Fastnet Rock filly had won five of her six starts including the Karaka Million (1200m) and Group 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m). She was bought for $210,000 by Te Akau principal David Ellis at the 2017 Premier Sale at Karaka, and before Saturday she had already earned her syndicate of owners more than $760,000 in prize-money.

But the locally trained Xpression (NZ) (Showcasing) loomed as a serious threat. She had won two of her three starts, including last season’s Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1200m) and a stylish first-up win last month.

They were the top two chances on paper, and that was exactly how it played out on the track. Avantage sat in fourth place on the inside until the home turn, where Danielle Johnson brought her to into the clear and sent her to the lead.

Xpression charged down the outside from last and tackled Avantage at the 200-metre mark, and the two top fillies went to war. At the end of a desperate fight to the finish, Avantage reached out and snatched victory by a short head.

They finished a big margin ahead of the rest of the field, with three and three-quarter lengths back to the third-placed Rocket Fuel (Smart Missile).

“She’s such a racehorse, she’s got the heart of a lion,” Johnson said. “She’s got tons of improvement in her too. It’s only her first-up run, so it’s an exciting season ahead.”

The win took Avantage’s earnings past $800,000 in her seven-start, six-win career.

“The really good horses find a way to get to the line in front, and that’s what she did today,” trainer Jamie Richards said. “She’s a real little racehorse and we love her at home.

“She was the champion two-year-old last season, and she’s come back in great order. The second horse is a serious filly, it was a great race between two very promising horses, and she just toughed it out.”

Avantage takes the early Filly of the Year Series lead with 6 points. The Te Akau colours won the Filly of the Year title in 2013-14 with Costa Viva (Encosta de Lago). The Te Akau-trained King’s Rose (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice) also won it in 2010-11.

Xpression picked up three points with her second placing on Saturday, while Rocket Fuel collected 1.5.

The second leg of the Series is the prestigious $400,000 Group 1 gavelhouse.com New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 17, for which Avantage is now the $3 favourite.