Te Akau Season - Stakes' Win 20 of 30 - Australia No.6
Date: 20 Jul 2024
July sees the final month of our phenomenal 2023/24 racing season.
As we like to do at this time of the year, we now reflect every day on our Group/Listed performers of the 'season that was' - and there were plenty! In fact 30 across New Zealand and Australia, with nine at Group 1 level.
Deserving to be hot favourite for impending Horse of the Year honours, the stunning season success of Imperatriz was further reinforced by her blitzing her elite opposition at Flemington in a race named for one of the greatest mares Australasia has seen, the mighty Black Caviar - it was an honour and thrill to win the race named for her, and sponsored by her ownership team …
Declared one of the best sprinters on the planet, Imperatriz (5 m I Am Invincible – Berimbau, by Shamardal) resumed with victory in the A$1 million Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr. 1, 1000m) on 17 February at Flemington.
Rising to the challenge when recording her eighth Group One victory in the A$3 million Darley Champions Sprint (Gr. 1, 1200m) in November at Flemington, Imperatriz had spelled following her spectacular campaign of four straight wins, including back-to-back track records over 1000 metres in the McEwen Stakes (Gr. 2, 1000m) and Moir Stakes (Gr. 1, 1000 metres), before winning the Manikato Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m).
The latest victory, her fifth Group One in Australia, surpassed the four Group One victories by former stable-mate and dual Horse of the Year Probabeel, while equalling the nine Group Ones by former stable-mate Avantage.
Purchased by Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM as a yearling at Karaka, as was Probabeel, and owned by Te Akau Avantage Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM), Avantage won 16 of 28 races and $2.1 million in prize money before setting a world record $4.1 million when sold online through Gavelhouse.com to Coolmore Australia, where she was foaled.
In January this year, on day three of 2024 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Ellis purchased the first foal out of Avantage, a filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), the sire of Cambridge Stud stallion Almanzor, from the draft of Coolmore Stud.
“It’s incredible to see Imperatriz resume after a three-month spell with such a tough win, and reach some lofty milestones in the process,” Ellis said.
“It’s been well documented that she was the last yearling to sell in her year, and I thought it was a fantastic effort by all the team at our stables at Cranbourne (Victoria) to present her in peak condition following the spell.
“So I take my hat off to Mark Walker and Ben Gleeson, and we’re very pleased that the new Australian arm of the stable is going so well.”
The win also edged stable rider Opie Bosson ONZM closer to achieving 100 Group Ones, as he notched his 97th.
Both horse and jockey were required to be at their best, as it appeared in earlier races that inside draws on the straight course may be disadvantageous.
Although the eight runners started in centre track, Bosson was still keen to get wider than the line dictated by barrier two and began swiftly in order to do so.
Shadowed in front by well supported Private Eye (Al Maher), the pair really knuckled down approaching the 200m before Imperatriz lifted to a winning advantage inside the last 80m.
“She was always travelling beautifully and just kept creeping up,” Bosson said. “And I knew once I went for her late she would find the kick that she always has.
“Mark and Ben said she was 100 percent and when they say that you know they’re right.”
Purchased for A$360,000 by David Ellis CNZM at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale 2020, from the draft of Bhima Thoroughbreds, Imperatriz is owned by the Te Akau Invincible Empress Racing Partnership (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM).
In 2023, Imperatriz won more Group One races (6) than any other horse in the world, on her way to capturing 10 Group One wins among a total 19, from 27 starts, nearly NZ$7.6 million in prize money, and finally selling when retired in June this year for A$6.6 million, becoming the highest priced filly or mare ever sold in the Southern Hemisphere.
For the lucky syndicate owners, they turned $360,000 into more than $14.5 million.