“She has been over here staying with Ian and Kerry Taplin (former New Zealand trainers) at the Sunshine Coast and she has settled in great,” explains Katrina Alexander. “She didn’t eat that well the first two days but has been back to normal the last week and looks as happy as she does at home.”
La Crique has pleased the Alexanders in two strong gallops under her new fast work rider: New Zealand jockey Trudy Thornton, the latest of the Kiwi helpers.
Thornton, a member of the 1000-win club in New Zealand, now lives in Queensland as does her daughter Samantha Collett and while Alexander and Thornton rarely teamed up in New Zealand the trainer has been thrilled to have her services over the last week.
“I don’t remember Trudy riding for us back home much but she is a very accomplished rider obviously and no-nonsense in her assessments,” says Alexander.
“Trudy has been happy this week, the horse is eating well so everything seems on track.”
Also aiding La Crique should be the improved Queensland weather which saw the Eagle Farm track improve to a Slow 5 yesterday, almost ideal for the 5-year-old.
“It looks the right race and we have been lucky enough to get James again so yes, it feels a little but like unfinished business from last season when she got beaten at Flemington.
“She never really settled in on that trip to Victoria and was only ever 85 per cent then so she will be better this week.”
Alexander admits La Crique may even stay in Australia for the remainder of her racing career depending on how the weather looks this spring.
“She is on an open-ended ticket,” she told the Herald.
“After this, we will find another target, the most likely being the Tatts Tiara, and then she will probably spell over here.
“That is preferable to going home because if we have a wet spring back in New Zealand that wouldn’t suit, not just for the races but because preparing her in the wet is really hard on her feet.
“So she could stay in Queensland and prepare for races in Victoria or New South Wales.”
They would provide La Crique with a possible shot at valuable Australian black type, which tomorrow’s race does not carry.
While she was beaten into second last start in the ITM Stakes at Rotorua the La Crique team had suggested before that race she could be vulnerable at 1400m but tomorrow’s race should be ideal.
Along with Kiwi fillies Molly Bloom and Moonlight Magic racing in the Queensland Oaks, the latter’s trainer Andrew Forsman will have Devastate (R5, No.9) making his Australian debut in an A$160,000 race over 1500m.
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.
