Imperatriz Continues Bumper Run for Bhima

Date: 18 Apr 2022

Imperatriz Continues Bumper Run for Bhima

 

TDN (Thoroughbred Daily News) Australia & New Zealand reports:

 


There are very few farms in Australasia that can celebrate producing two multiple Group 1-winning graduates in one season, but that significant milestone was marked by Mike and Kate Fleming's Bhima Thoroughbreds with the victory of Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) in the G1 Thoroughbred Breeders' S. on Saturday.



The Te Akau-owned and now Mark Walker-trained 3-year-old created her own piece of history at Te Rapa, powering away to a 5l win, the biggest margin since the race was upgraded to Group 1 status in 2002.

Having won the G1 Levin Classic at Trentham last month, she became just the third multiple Group 1-winning daughter of Yarraman Park's I Am Invincible, following in the illustrious footsteps of Loving Gaby and Viddora.


The victory also completed the set for her jockey Opie Bosson, who can now lay claim to having won every Group 1 race in New Zealand.


It also completed an extraordinarily successful seven-week period for Scone-based Bhima Thoroughbreds, who in March had fellow graduate Forbidden LoveĀ (All Too Hard) add a further two Group 1 wins to her resume in the Canterbury S. and the George Ryder S., the latter coming on the same day Imperatriz opened her Group 1-winning account.


"It's been a pretty good year this year between her and Forbidden Love, so long may it continue. That's why we do it," Bhima principal Mike Fleming said.


"We are a business, where myself and my wife Kate own the farm and we agist and consign mares. Raffles, who bred Imperatriz, have been with us a long time, even right back to the days where I was managing Brooklyn Lodge, when I wasn't long coming out of New Zealand.


"We are a business, where myself and my wife Kate own the farm and we agist and consign a lot of mares. Raffles, who bred Imperatriz, have been with us a long time." - Mike Fleming

 

"That relationship goes back a long way, so it's great to see those breeders on the smaller scale get the big results."


The Yap-family's Raffles Racing operation cut back the number of mares at Bhima during the COVID-pandemic to just one, but that one mare, Berimbau (Shamardal {USA}), is doing a sterling job.


Placed in a Group 2 race on the track, Berimbau was purchased by Raffles Dancers for $160,000 in foal to Exceed And Excel out of the Godolphin draft at the 2016 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale and sent to Bhima.



Shamardal (USA) mares have proven a particularly fruitful path for Australasian breeders and he features as the damsire of 18 stakes winners, among them recent Australian Group 1 winners Converge (Frankel {GB}) and Private Eye (Al Maher).


Berimbau's first filly, by Exceed And Excel, Sonority was retained to race by Raffles in New Zealand. She slipped her second foal, to Redoute's Choice, but was then successfully put on foal to I Am Invincible.

A star from the start

 

The resultant filly, now a dual Group 1 winner, made her mark as soon as she hit the ground at Bhima in August 2018.


"She was a standout from day one. A lot of the good horses are. They foal down, they always have their own attitude and personality. They never have any setbacks, they grow develop, they prep well and they have that good mental attitude that they cop everything you ask of them. Those often are the horses that go on and perform at the other end," Fleming said.




Imperatriz as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions


 


Fleming took the I Am Invincible filly to the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale with a degree of confidence, but was as much interested in where she was going as how much he sold for.


"Breeders put three years into these horses from the time they mate their mares and send them to stud. Then they are foaled down, they raise them, they put them through as yearlings and that's only the beginning," he said.


"It's not always about the money they make. The year she sold, she sold for $360,000 which was probably quite buyable, you wouldn't have said it was a price that was over the top. But the biggest key to the puzzle when they leave our hands and walk out of that yearling complex, is where they end up. That can be a big difference as to whether they get to the top level or not."


"The biggest key to the puzzle when they leave our hands and walk out of that yearling complex, is where they end up. That can be a big difference as to whether they get to the top level or not." - Mike Fleming

When it was Te Akau's David Ellis who signed the docket for Imperatriz, Fleming knew she would get every chance.


A Group 3 winner at just her second start as a 2-year-old for Jamie Richards, Imperatriz has compiled a thoroughly impressive 3-year-old campaign.


She won two Group 3 races in the spring and then returned in the autumn to prove herself not only one of the best 1600-metre 3-year-olds in New Zealand, with her win in Levin Classic, but one of the best weight-for-age mile horses overall. Her utterly dominant success on Saturday as her first start under Walker's name.



Imperatriz emulated another star Te Akau horse in Avantage (Fastnet Rock), who compiled her eighth elite success in the same race last year before being later sold for NZ$4.1 million.

A family on the rise

With so many top mile races on offer on both sides of the Tasman, the world appears Imperatriz's oyster and that's significant for Raffles, who still have Berimbau at Bhima.


"She had a little bit of bad luck in the past couple of years," Fleming said. "She slipped a Press Statement and then unfortunately the next Press Statement filly foal died in a paddock accident.



"But she's successfully in foal to Capitalist now and we are looking forward to the spring."


Berimbau's now 2-year-old Fastnet Rock filly, Cabaca, who was purchased by Magic Bloodstock for $300,000 through Bhima's draft at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, in work with Chris Waller.


"She's a lovely mare herself, Berimbau. She's a quality type of mare. A lot in the mould of what Imperatriz herself is. It's no surprise she has thrown good types and when they end up in good homes, they get every chance to go to that next level," he said.


"She's a lovely mare herself, Berimbau. She's a quality type of mare. A lot in the mould of what Imperatriz herself is. It's no surprise she has thrown good types." - Mike Fleming

When you add in two $1 million-plus results from Bhima's draft at the recent Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, it has really been an extraordinary autumn for the Flemings.


"The three-quarter to Prague, he sold very well and ended up in a good stable. Gai Waterhouse and Sir Owen Glenn bought him. We consigned and sold a few horses for Middlebrook Valley Lodge, and to get a $1 million I Am invincible colt for them was great as well," Fleming said.


All in all, Bhima sold 12 of the 16 it offered at an average price of $405,833, just above the overall Sale average.

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