There has been plenty of intrigue on whether the A$20 million carrot of The Everest (1200m) would prove too enticing for Te Akau Racing with their star sprinter Imperatriz, but they have put the nail in the coffin of that idea this week.
Te Akau principal David Ellis has confirmed once more that she will remain in Melbourne at their new Cranbourne base and target three Group One races, starting with Friday’s Moir Stakes (1000m) at The Valley.
“It was an interesting decision, but we’d pretty much made up our mind a month or six weeks ago that we’d go for the Group One races,” Ellis told Racing.com.
“We’ve been offered some positions (in The Everest) by really good judges in Australia, but we’ve decided that we want to keep her in Melbourne to race this spring.
“We think she’s slightly better left-handed than right-handed and she’s already had a long trip over form New Zealand to Melbourne, so I don’t think she needs another long trip up to Sydney.
“We love racing in Melbourne, our owners love it so with our base there, it was a pretty easy decision to make in the finish.
“We have got a lot of owners going over and it will be a fun night.”
Imperatriz impressed with her first-up victory in the Gr.2 McEwen Stakes (1000m) at The Valley earlier this month, adding to her previous heroics when winning the Gr.1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) at the Melbourne track in March.
She had a hit-out at The Valley on Tuesday morning over 800m alongside stablemate Zourion and trainer Mark Walker was pleased with what he saw from the five-year-old.
“It’s just been a balancing act trying to keep her fresh enough to go another 1000m, but Ben’s (Gleeson, assistant trainer) been happy with her the whole way through, and I thought her work was good,” Walker said.
“In a perfect world you’d be going 1100 if not 1200m, so we’ll just have to see Friday night if she is fresh enough.
“She’s actually a Group One winner over a mile at home in New Zealand but I think her pet distance is 1200 if not 1400m. It’s a bit of a juggling act trying to go 1000m again.”
