Imperatriz retirement shock

New Zealand mare Imperatriz was retired in a shock move yesterday.

The 10-time Group 1 winner only raced last Saturday when bogged down into fourth in the T J Smith in Sydney but was found to have wear and tear when given her end of season veterinary examination.

“It is just the wear and tear you expect from a horse who has been racing at her level and some people might have patched her up and kept racing,” says David Ellis, managing owner of Te Akau syndications.

“It was her telling us she has had enough so she will retire sound and happy and start her next career.”

That will be as a broodmare with Imperatriz almost certain to be sold at a public auction. Being owned by a syndicate, it would be too difficult for her owners to breed from her as a group.

While Ellis has the option of negotiating a private sale that would run into the millions of dollars, Te Akau have tended to sell their best mares at public sales which are more transparent and open for anybody to bid.

Their greatest such sale was the $4.1 million paid for Avantage as a broodmare at a special one-horse GavelHouse Plus auction and that figure should be eclipsed by Imperatriz.

The five-year-old mare has been phenomenal in the last 15 months in particular, dominating Victoria’s best sprinting races after taking all before her at home.

Her series of Group 1 wins saw he rise to second on the world rankings and also become the world’s highest rated sprinter, firsts for a New Zealand-trained horse.

Trained early in her career by Jamie Richards, before he moved to Hong Kong, Imperatriz was twice a Group 1 winner aged three over 1600m but it was when she was moved to sprinting by new Te Akau trainer Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson that she found her true calling.

She was ridden in the majority of her major wins by Opie Bosson.

Imperatriz will go to the broodmare paddock the winner of 19 of her 27 starts for $6.9m in stakes after Ellis purchased her for A$360,000.