Champion mare Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) has ticked the first box of her next campaign, galloping smartly at Cranbourne under the watchful eye of trainer Mark Walker on Thursday morning.
A short spell followed The Te Akau mare’s infallible spring, where she claimed three Group Ones in succession, and the focus has now turned to shaping her up for the Lightning Stakes in just over a month.
Imperatriz was quite fired up when heading onto the training course, but Walker was far from concerned, and rather encouraged by the feisty attitude.
“She’s back, she had a little bit of a tantrum going out on the track, which is good to see,” he said.
“Just a little bit out of her comfort zone coming across the road, but her work was really strong, very happy.
“She puts on weight really easily, so you’ve got to monitor that, but we’ve got five weeks to basically her first-up run in the Lightning, so she’s on track.”
The five-year-old, who has won over A$5.3 million in prizemoney from 23 starts, will contest just three races in autumn, but all three are Group Ones.
“She’ll go Lightning Stakes (on the) 17th of February, then it’s five weeks into the William Reid, and then she’ll go up to Sydney a couple of weeks later for the T.J. Smith,” Walker said.
“Only the three runs in the autumn, but every G1 is hard to win, so, it’s still a good programme and they certainly don’t give G1s away.”
