Racing: Avantage takes out $100,000 Valachi Downs Foxbridge Plate

Rider Danielle Johnson drives Avantage clear in the Group 2 Valachi Downs Foxbridge Plate. Photo / Trish Dunell

It took just over an hour for the Jamie Richards juggernaut to kick back into life at Te Rapa on Saturday and rival trainers have every reason to fear what happens next.

After dominating last season so thoroughly he was thoroughbred racing's only nominee for trainer of the year, Richards and his Te Akau team have, purely by the numbers, had an underwhelming start to the new season.

The young gun of New Zealand training wasn't surprised, it happened last winter too as the soaked tracks negated the class of the Te Akau army and Richards barely trained a winner in August.

But with Te Rapa improving to a Dead 6 and more of the serious firepower rolled out, Richards was back, winning both Group races as racing's spring started in earnest.

Need I Say More started the ball rolling when he remained unbeaten with a win in the $70,000 WRC Northland Breeders Stakes; jockey Craig Grylls using his early pace to overcome the wide draw so efficiently the race was over at the top of the straight.

Need I Say More looks every inch a 2000 Guineas horse at Riccarton with the Hawkes Bay Guineas a logical target on the way through.

But the horse the punters wanted to see, wanted to win, was Avantage in the $100,000 Valachi Downs Foxbridge Plate and she delivered like the extreme class race mare she is, albeit not without a fight from Tavi Mac.

The latter produced the run of the race after working hard from his outside draw and striding clear at the top of the straight but that just gave Avantage a target, as she peeled off Tavi Mac's back and surged past him late.

The second horse was so brave in his first time at the big dance but Avantage always looked like she was going to wear him down after Danielle Johnson got her tactics inch perfect.

The first two were clearly superior as Avantage edged within small change of $1.5 million in career earnings, more than seven times her $210,000 purchase price at Karaka.

She is now $1.80 to win the first Group 1 of the season at Hastings on September 19, with Tavi Mac a huge market mover as his second guarantees him a spot in that Tarzino Trophy.

Prise De Fer, Demonetization and Kiwi Ida, who was trapped wide, were all good enough to suggest they have claims at Hastings but Julius raced below his best and Travelling Light was never a factor in her comeback race.

Still, they don't just give away Group 1s and the Hastings field could be boosted by Jennifer Eccles, The Mitigator and Supera while trainer Lance Noble is still hoping another of Saturday's winners in Bavella sneaks into the Tarzino field.

But with his big-name gallopers now back in play and the likes of Probabeel being set for the Epsom in Sydney in October, Richards's season has finally started for real.

"All we needed was those slightly better tracks and to get these type of horses back," he said.

"But yes, you could say I am glad August is gone for another year."