A ten time Group I winner and one of the world’s best sprinters, Imperatriz was always going to be a show-stopper at Magic Millions National and even though she was back at home in New Zealand rather than walking the ring at the Gold Coast, the daughter of I Am Invincible brought the auditorium to a standstill while she was sold.
The best horse to carry the Te Akau tangerine, Imperatriz won 19 of 27 starts earning just shy of $7million in a career that started with a pre-Christmas juvenile win at Otaki in November 2020.
At her third start as a spring three year-old, she beat a Savabeel gelding called I Wish I Win to win the Group III Northland Breeders Stakes at Te Rapa and what nobody knew then was that they had just seen the two best sprinters in Australia.
A two time Group I winner at 1600m at three, Imperatriz found her true calling when dropped back to sprinting as an older mare and when sent to Australia in March last year cut a swathe through our sprinters starting 10 times here for seven wins, two seconds and a fourth in her final appearance.
Bidding for Imperatriz opened at $4million and duly surged past the old record price for an Australian broodmare sold at auction set by Milanova, who sold for $5million back in 2008.
She was finally knocked down to Zhijun Zhao for $6.6million and will join another Te Akau super star in Melody Belle, who is also now in Yulong ownership after being purchased from this sale in 2021 for $2.6million.
Imperatriz has given her Te Akau owners the full fairytale experience having been purchased for $360,000 by David Ellis at the 2020 Magic Millions from Bhima Thoroughbreds.
Her dam Berimbau was also bought by Yulong at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale last year for $1.8million and produced a colt for them last spring by I Am Invincible and she is now in foal to Pierata.
Her half-sister by Fastnet Rock called Cabaca was purchased at this sale last year as a racing proposition by Bruce Perry Bloodstock for $460,000 and runs in the Cressfield colours at Canterbury on Wednesday.
