HAVING won last year’s edition of the 1,200 metre Karaka Million 2YO, Te Akau Racing repeated the dose at Ellerslie on Saturday, adding the quinella for good measure.

With five of the 14 runners, Te Akau had the strongest hand, with punters right on the mark, sending out the Fastnet Rock filly Avantage out as favourite. Utilising early tactical speed, Opie Bosson had Avantage one pair back off the rail. Finishing the best, she beat her stablemate, the Exceed And Excel colt Al Hasa (a NZ$625,000 yearling) by three-quarters of a length, with the Foxwedge colt Bocce ($105,000) third.

A $210,000 yearling, Avantage is now unbeaten in four starts. “She’s just a natural racehorse which makes the job so much easier,” said Bosson. “Once she balanced up she really stepped up and it was all over.”

ROSIE

Ellerslie played host to the inaugural running of the 1,600-metre Karaka Million 3YO Classic on Saturday with most convinced the Te Akau Racing-trained 2000 Guineas winner Embellish would add the race to his record.

Step up Rosie Myers. She had just four of her 15 rivals behind her at the halfway point as she began to plot a course forward with Scott Base. The Dalghar gelding had plenty to do at the top of the straight but Myers kept him improving as his big bounds swallowed up his rivals, finally catching the favourite to deliver a $22 knockout.

“He’s got an amazing turn of foot, it’s my second time riding him and I was really impressed the first time I rode him,” said Myers. “He was pretty awesome the last bit. We were a little but uncertain how he’d go, but he’s shown his class.” Trained by Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard, Scott Base, a NZ$70,000 purchase, defeated the Savabeel pair of the colt Embellish ($775,000) and the filly Savvy Coup ($65,000).