Imperious Imperatriz impresses at The Valley
Te Akau star sprinter Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) put up arguably the most impressive performance of the weekend when she demolished her rivals in the McEwen Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) at Moonee Valley yesterday.
The first runner to be trained out of Te Akau’s new Cranbourne stable in Victoria, Imperatriz clearly demonstrated the benefits of their new set up across the Tasman from their traditional New Zealand base, producing an electric turn of foot to leave her rivals trailing and win by two and a half lengths in a track record time of 56.68 seconds.
Last year’s winner Rothfire (Rothesay) battled to claim second, a head in front of The Everest champion Giga Kick (Scissor Kick), who was sent off odds-on favourite.
The sparkling nature of the performance will have also put the five-time Group 1 winner deep into the conversation for a berth in The Everest, for which she was cut to $5.50 behind $4.50 market leader Giga Kick.
The result capped another memorable day for the Te Akau training operation, who claimed Group 1 success in New Zealand with Skew Wiff (Savabeel) in the Tarzino Trophy (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Gold Trail Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) with Quintessa (Shamus Award), while the also landed the Sir Colin Meads Trophy (Listed, 1200m) with Tokyo Tycoon (Satono Aladdin).
“It’s a huge relief. It adds on to the day at home in which they’ve had four winners and a Group 1, so it’s a huge day for the team,” said Ben Gleeson, assistant trainer at Te Akau who runs their Cranbourne stable.
“We got in a lovely position. We’d always planned to be dropping in behind the speed. Having Giga Kick behind us in a stalking position was a bit worrying, but when she took off, Mick (Dee, rider) read the race perfectly, got the trail, and the way she let down, regardless of the way the race panned out she was always going to let that speed go.
“They’ve been an incredibly warming organisation to me. Mark, Sam, David and Karen, they make it feel like a family and Mark has been very trusting towards me. To be part of something special is a nice feeling.”
Imperatriz took her race record to 14 wins from 20 starts, a haul which includes 11 successes at stakes level.
A $360,000 graduate of the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when purchased by David Ellis, Imperatriz is the second foal out of Group 2 placegetter Berimbau (Shamardal), who was a $1.8 million buy in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) for Yulong at this year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale.
The 12-year-old mare has a colt foal by Capitalist and an unnamed two-year-old filly by Press Statement (Hinchinbrook).