La Crique's demolition job in the Arrowfield Stud Plate at Matamata may have been her greatest win. Photo / Kenton Wright
The decision to retire La Crique may have been easy but watching her leave won’t be.
That is how trainers Katrina and Simon Alexander were feeling on Monday after their little mare with the big heart was confirmed as having run her last race.
The 7-year-old pulled a shoe when finishing a close up fourth in the $500,000 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, and x-rays on her off-front hoof suggested it will take time to repair.
With only two or three more realistic targets left this season and that hoof having already been an issue on and off for two years, La Crique’s connections decided she has nothing left to prove.
So she can now be let down with plenty of time to prepare for next breeding season.
La Crique will enter that phase of her career the winner of nine races, two of them Group 1s and over $2.1 million in stakes.
And with an army of fans, a lovable little mare who never backed down from a fight.
“It has been a bit of a battle for her for much of the last two years,” says Simon Alexander.
“She had a problem in that hoof two years ago and it might have affected her on and off since.
“She has gone some wonderful races since then at a really high level but she maybe never really came back to her absolute best.
“Which goes to show how brave she is. She has been beaten noses and short margins in our best Group 1 races in that two-year period all when maybe not at her peak.
“Once we had the hoof x-rayed and realised that would ruin most of her summer the decision to retire her has been pretty easy.
“You don’t want to see a mare as special as her going around for the sake of it and really, what else does she has left to prove?
“But that doesn’t mean it will be easy to have her leave the stable.
“She has been with us for over five years and you get very attached to a horse like her.”
La Crique, by Rich Hill stallion Vadamos, started her career with a brilliant 3-year-old summer, winning the Desert Gold Stakes by four-and-a-half lengths and the Avondale Guineas by three-and-three-quarters before being a slightly luckless second in the NZ Derby.
At 4 she won her first Group 1 in the Arrowfield Stud Plate, one of two times that spring she beat the champion mare Imperatriz, before starting favourite when fourth in the Empire Rose at Flemington during Cup week.
“She was below her best that entire Melbourne trip,” says Alexander.
She raced in a tough era, with placings that season behind Imperatriz, Levante and Prowess before struggles in her 5-year-old season were turned around when she beat Aegon, Desert Lightning, El Vencedor and Ladies Man in her second Group 1 victory, the Ōtaki-Māori Classic.
She capped that season winning the A$500,000 ($576k) National Mares Classic at Eagle Farm before returning home to win the Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes last year and then embark on an incredible streak of seven Group 1 placings in a row before her fourth in the Zabeel on Boxing Day.
“It has been a battle the last two years and Katrina has done an amazing job with her,” says Alexander.
“We could bring her back up again but the only thing she could possibly achieve now to boost her broodmare career would be a Group 1 win in Australia and that isn’t an easy thing to achieve.
“She can let down into a broodmare and her owners have plenty of time to think about stallion choices.
“But it has been very special to have her as part of our lives.”
While La Crique gets set to leave the stable the Alexanders appear to have a horse who will keep taking them at our best race meetings for a while yet, with Rise Companions a stunning winner of the Stella Artois Final on Boxing Day.
A monster with a huge stride he looks a Group 1 miler in the making.
But he has big shoes, worn by a little mare, to fill.
Breeding: 7m Vadamos-Destiny Cove.
Owners: John and Jan Cassin.
Trainers: Katrina and Simon Alexander.
Record: 30 starts, nine wins, 16 placing for $2,128,972 in stakes.
Highlights: Arrowfield Stud Plate and Otaki-Maori Classic (both Group 1), Avondale Guineas and Auckland Breeders Stakes (both G2), A$500,000 Magic Millions National Classic at Eagle Farm.
Remarkable: As well as winning two Group 1 races was placed in another 11 at the highest level.
Winning jockeys: Craig Grylls (four wins), Shaun McKay, Vinnie Colgan, Matt Cameron, Michael McNab and James McDonald (all one win).
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.