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I’ll’ava’alf is thriving on a varied training regime and another bold showing this weekend will earn him a tilt at one of the country’s feature distance events.

The progressive stayer will run in this Saturday’s Gr.3 Campbell Infrastructure Rotorua Cup and a top three finish will confirm longer-term plans for a trip to Christchurch.

“We’ve got it in the back of our minds to go to the New Zealand Cup with him and we’d race him very sparingly over the winter and have him at his peak for Riccarton,” trainer Karen Fursdon said.

I’ll’ava’alf has won five of his 21 starts and the son of Lucky Unicorn has been in excellent touch this preparation with a 2100 metre success at Ellerslie and a last-start drubbing of his Rating 75 rivals over 2500 metres at Hastings.

“I’ve been very pleased with him and he’s been working up well and is a bright and happy horse,” Fursdon said.

“After he won at Hastings we’d thought we’d have a go at Rotorua, he came through the trip terrifically well and I can’t fault him.

“He’s had a good school and gallop since then. He holds a jumping certificate and while we haven’t done a great deal of jumping with him this time, he does enjoy it.”

With wins on the full range of tracks from good to heavy, the five-year-old’s versatility will also hold him in good stead over the coming months and into the spring.

“Last year he wasn’t that happy in the mud, but this year he’s a bit stronger and can cope,” Fursdon said.

While I’ll’ava’alf is out of a sister to the former champion juvenile One Under (Ellerslie, Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes), stout stayers Rough ‘N’ Tough (VRC St Leger), Guile (Lord Mayor’s Cup) and Frederik (Parliamentary Handicap, McGregor Grant Steeples) are to be found in his pedigree.