TE AKAU'S FUTURE EXPANSION CONFIRMED WHILE IMPERATRIZ LINES UP ANOTHER GROUP 1 TARGET

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, February 13, 2024

The Te Akau Racing empire is preparing to build a far greater and more permanent presence in Australia with trainer Mark Walker confirming to Racing.com that, with the blessing of Te Akau’s David Ellis, he plans to move to Victoria ‘within the next twelve months’ where he will personally oversee Te Akau’s Australian base at Cranbourne where plans are afoot to build fifty new stables to take the Te Akau yard capacity there to seventy boxes and the stable to a whole new level.

It was in June 2023 that Te Akau announced they would be establishing a base at Cranbourne. The initial move had been pending for some time but was delayed by the Covid outbreak and its subsequent lockdowns and restrictions.

Te Akau have long been a very dominant force in New Zealand, but the brand has also enjoyed success around the world over a long period of time and, with the record they have, both with their continuing supply of quality racehorses and the solid infrastructure they put in place to professionally manage things behind the scenes, you would expect the strong future of Te Akau is assured for some time to come.

Right now though, there is immediate business to take care of with Te Akau’s excitement machine Imperatrix set to tackle the Group 1, Black Caviar Lightning at Flemington on Saturday.

Imperatrix, a seventeen-time winner, will be bidding for his sixth successive victory and his ninth victory from his last ten starts.

Imperatriz has been imperious in his latest unbeaten sequence, landing four Group 1 wins in the William Read, the Moir Stakes, the Manikato and the Darley Champions Sprint ... as well as a Group 2 win in the McEwen.

That has taken his overall number of Group 1 wins to eight from twenty-three career starts.

If you are looking for any chink in his armour on Saturday, the fact that Imperatriz is first-up after a three-month break from race action won’t cut it. He has won five out of six starts first-up.

If you think the 1000m trip might be short of his best after winning at 1200m in his last two starts ... he is two wins from two starts over 1000m.

If you think maybe the Flemington straight might catch him out ... he has only run there once and came back a winner.

Perhaps the opposition might provide a better clue to the challenge Imperatriz faces.

Private Eye finished second in the shorts and third in The Everest, but has yet to win over the distance. Bella Nipotina has won first-up before but was beaten by two lengths by Imperatriz last time out and they meet at the same weights here. Espiona, likewise, finished two lengths behind Imperatriz at the same weights when they last met.

Cylinder finished a close-up fifth in The Everest but has yet to win over this distance. The Astrologist will be fitter here ... third-up ... but his two starts this time in since returning from Royal Ascot have not been particularly encouraging. I Am Unstoppable has recorded three seconds in-a-row in his last three starts, taking the rise in competition ... from Listed level, to Group 2 to Group 1 ... in his stride. Clearly, he is a very progressive horse so some case can be made there. Rich Fortune has shown glimmers of form but last won a year ago.

Of course, racing’s history is littered with upsets ... so one cannot be ruled out here, but maybe, just maybe, we are just looking for ghosts.

Maybe the wisest decision will be to not bet against Imperatriz.