Classic contender Avisto kept two clean sheets when she proved an expected cut above her opposition in the Listed Soliloquy Stakes at Ellerslie.
The Tavistock filly is now unbeaten in two starts for Cambridge trainer Roger James and she also maintained jockey Noel Harris’ 100 per cent record on Saturday after his only other ride Queens Rose had won earlier on the card.
Avisto, who successfully began her career with John Sargent and Hayden Allen before the former closed his Matamata operation to concentrate on his Sydney stable, ended her two-year-old campaign with victory in the Listed Great Northern Foal Stakes in May.She continued her winning form from her new quarters earlier this month in the Listed O’Leary’s Fillies’ Stakes at Wanganui and that roll continued in Saturday’s Allied Workforce-sponsored feature.
“I’ve never been more confident in a stakes race than I was today,” James said.“Her work has been just superb and I looked through the field and couldn’t see anything that could beat her.
“She’ll cope with a better track so she’ll go to the Sarten and then hopefully Riccarton.”Raced by the Adrian Clark-managed Challenge Racehorse Syndicate, Avisto is currently a $6 second favourite behind the $4 chance O’Marilyn for the Gr.1 NZB 1000 Guineas on November 15.
“She’s pretty classy,” Harris said. “She jumped well and I was a bit worried there wasn’t a lot of pace on and she had to work for the first couple of hundred metres, but we got to the 700 and she came back to me.”When Harris asked Avisto for a serious effort in the straight, the filly drew clear and under a kind ride she beat Choice by three-quarters of a length with the maidens Vavasour and Big Dreamer the next pair home.
