Racing: Imperatriz and La Crique battle will come down to percentages

Leading rider Opie Bosson will partner Imperatriz. Photo / Trish Dunell

Percentages count at the Group 1 level Imperatriz and La Crique will be striving to operate at in Saturday's $300,000 Plate feature at Matamata.

The two mares, Imperatriz more proven but La Crique something special, dominate the market on the rescheduled feature, and with Matamata promising firmer footing than the last time they met, they should be too fast for their older male rivals.

Drawn next to each other at barriers two and three, neither can afford to give the other too much of a start and even one rival getting between them could make a crucial difference.

That is why the start of the race could be so important, as Imperatriz has on occasions been awkwardly away, and Opie Bosson copped a ribbing from fellow jockey Michael McNab on the way home from the Ruakaka races on Wednesday that he couldn't get Imperatriz out of the gates as smoothly as McNab did when winning a Group 1 on her last season.

An even start is the first thing Bosson and Imperatriz need to get right.

With La Crique dazzling in trackwork on Wednesday, Imperatriz is going to need to be the Ferrari she was at Te Rapa two starts ago, rather than the bogged down sports car spinning her wheels she became when La Crique beat her last start.

Bosson says the Ferrari is fuelled up and ready to go.

"She galloped really well between races at Te Rapa last week. What I liked even more is how she has galloped since. She was as good when I galloped her again a few days later.

"In her work she feels more like she did going into Te Rapa than how she did going to Hastings. I think the drying tracks are really helping her."

Every minute of Matamata sunshine also aids La Crique though, as will the step up to 1600m.

It speaks to the as yet raw potential of La Crique that she has never won at this level but is so close in the market to a mare who has twice.

Bosson says the drying track should also aid his Hawke's Bay Guineas ride Dynastic, even though he faces a wide draw with second favourite Best Seller drawn the ace.

"It is 1600m and on a better track I think we will see some real acceleration from him."