"She hasn't shown us she can't gallop on heavy tracks," Alexander told the Herald. "But obviously we would have liked a better track than we are going to get.
"I think she will handle it well enough but whether she is quite as good as she can be on a really heavy track, we don't know.
"What we do know if she is very well and alongside her trials he last two pieces of work at Matamata, where she was able to get first use of the inside grass on Tuesday, have been very good."
The fact La Crique is considered any chance of beating Imperatriz after what the latter did at Te Rapa last start and beating Dragon Leap giving him 5kg at Ruakaka the start before reaffirms La Crique's style.
"I don't know if we can beat her this time with her having so many advantages and I have told Craig [Grylls, jockey] not to be too hard on her," says Alexander. If La Crique wins or finishes a good second it would increase her chances of sticking around for the Arrowfield Plate in three weeks but a more resounding defeat could have the Alexanders scouring the Australian weather reports to see if better track conditions can be found in Sydney or more likely Melbourne.
"We thought about Australia initally but it has been so wet over there, particularly in Sydney, we committed to at least one start here, even if this track will be very wet," says Alexander.
The mares aren't the only high class four-year-olds in tomorrow's Group 1 with Dark Destroyer good enough to win the Auckland Guineas and Rough Habit Plate last season, the latter on a heavy track.
He has the class to be a weight-for-age horse but was only average in his recent trial behind La Crique and would need major improvement to beat her, let alone Imperatriz, on Saturday.
