Imperatriz in top company after A$3m win in Champions Sprint at Flemington

Jockey Opie Bosson and Imperatriz at Flemington. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi superstar Imperatriz earned more than mega money by winning the A$3 million Champions Sprint at Flemington today; she earned herself a place in the conversation about our greatest-ever racemares.

The queen of New Zealand racing capped a remarkable spring by beating some of Australia’s best sprinters down Flemington’s famous straight six (1200m) to record her ninth career Group 1 victory.

It gave co-trainer Mark Walker his first ever Flemington Group 1 and jockey Opie Bosson his equal richest victory alongside Mongolian Khan’s 2015 Caulfield Cup.

After even easier victories in the Moir Stakes and Manikato at The Valley, Imperatriz has won races worth A$6,050,000 in two months, justifying Te Akau boss David Ellis’ decision to turn down numerous slots for the A$20m Everest in Sydney last month.

Imperatriz did it with ease today, Bosson punching her out of gate eight to sit behind and then outside the leader, controlling the race but with cover from the crosswind.

While the champion jockey admits he may have asked for her top speed a little too early, talent and heart meant she never looked in danger of defeat.

New Zealand sprinting mares have undergone the most unlikely renaissance in the past two years, with Roch ‘N’ Horse winning this race last season, but Imperatriz has consistently beaten or even thrashed elite Australian sprinters this season.

She has now won all five of her Victorian races at the highest level.

So that moves her into the conversation, not as our best-ever racemare, but as one who deserves to be mentioned when the all-time great girls are discussed.

It would be a list which for most racing fans is headed by Sunline, who was a phenomenon here and in Australia, as well as winning at the highest level in Hong Kong.

Horlicks is another modern great, winning a Japan Cup in world record time and racing in a great era, while Desert Gold was a legend over a century ago.

Add in recent-ish Melbourne Cup winners with great support records in Empire Rose, Ethereal and Verry Elleegant, as well as Melody Belle for her Group1 longevity, and you have some truly magnificent mares who now have another queen in their midst.

While Imperatriz has yet to have her Sunline or Horlicks moment, it may still await her. She is only a 5-year-old with potentially another season or two of racing, the beauty of her being syndicate-owned.

Royal Ascot or more likely the A$20m Everest in Sydney await next season and she could end up being the highest-earning racehorse ever trained in New Zealand.

But that is the future. Now she comes home and rests before heading back to Australia in February.

Already a champion, her exact place among the greats is still to be decided.

● New Zealand-bred and owned mare Atishu completed a great day for the local racing industry by winning the A$3m Champion Stakes (2000m) also at Flemington for owners Go Racing, trainer Chris Waller and jockey James McDonald.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.