La Crique sets NZ record with seventh Group 1 runner-up finish

La Crique (inside), pictured fighting out the New Zealand Stakes (2000m) with El Vencedor in March, has now run second in seven Group 1 races. Photo / Kenton Wright, Race Images

Ultra-consistent mare La Crique earned a unique place in New Zealand racing history at Ellerslie on Saturday with her seventh runner-up finish in a Group 1 race.

The Vadamos mare produced another top-drawer performance in the Group 1 Proisir Plate (1400m). Almost half of the 16-horse field lined up across the track and went to war down the Ellerslie straight, and La Crique dug deep and held them all out before being bombed by Quintessa’s last-to-first surge down the outside.

La Crique now holds the record for second placings in Group 1 races in New Zealand. She previously shared it with Integrate, who had six.

“She ran another fantastic race on Saturday and fought so hard,” said Katrina Alexander, who trains La Crique in partnership with her husband Simon.

“I think she and the others who were fighting it out never even saw Quintessa coming down the outside. Full credit to her, it was a huge performance to win the race like that, but our mare did us proud again.”

La Crique has had 27 starts for nine wins, 10 seconds and four thirds and has earned $1.993 million for owner-breeders John and Jan Cassin.

A dual Group 1 winner of the Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) and Ōtaki-Māori WFA Classic (1600m), La Crique has also recorded those seven runner-up finishes over distances ranging from the 1400m of Saturday’s Proisir Plate all the way up to the 2400m of the 2022 New Zealand Derby.

La Crique has now run second in five consecutive Group 1 races, having filled that position in last season’s TAB Mufhasa Classic (1600m), Zabeel Classic (2000m), Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) and Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m).

“I think what we’re most proud of with her, and our management of her, is how consistent she’s been throughout every preparation and every race,” Alexander said. “She goes out and gives the very best that she can every single time, which is quite a big thing, and especially to be still doing that as a 7-year-old.”

The TAB now rates La Crique a $6 chance for the Group 1 Howden Insurance Mile (1600m) at Te Rapa on September 27. She shares second favouritism with Proisir winner Quintessa, while Saturday’s unlucky sixth-place getter Legarto heads the market at $4.

However, Alexander warns La Crique is not quite a guaranteed starter at Te Rapa.

“She’s pulled up well,” she said. “It got a bit tight and rough during the race, and when we got her home, we saw he had a little bit of bark off a hind leg. Luckily it’s not anything major, but it shows what these Group 1 races can be like.

“She ate well last night and she looks bright, so she seems to have come through it as well as we could have hoped.

“Stepping up to the mile second-up should definitely suit her, but I’m just not entirely sure about Te Rapa. Her couple of runs there have been a bit of a mixed bag, so I don’t know if it’s her preferred surface.

“We’ll give her a light week now, which will give us a bit of time to work that out. We’ll probably make a decision towards the end of the week.”

The Te Awamutu trainers’ other runner at Ellerslie on Saturday was Si Exquis, who finished ninth in the Join TAB Racing Club 1600 but was beaten by only 1.4 lengths in a blanket finish.

“It was her first time at Ellerslie and quite a different racing experience for her,” Alexander said. “It was very tight. She’s probably not really used to that.

“She hit a bit of a flat patch, which was possibly a bit of greenness when she came up behind a wall of horses and didn’t know what to do. She’s a big mare and just went a bit flat, and being a heavy horse, it takes a bit to get the momentum up again. Kelly [Myers, jockey] said the race was over by the time she felt the horse picking up under her again.

“But she’s pulled up super and hasn’t really had a tough run. She’s looking for a bit more ground now, but the way the calendar is at the moment may mean we have to give her another mile first before stepping up in trip.”

– LOVERACING.NZ News Desk