Photo: Grant Peters
The Queensland Winter Carnival is proving to be a happy hunting ground for Imperialist (Churchill), who collected his second Brisbane black-type prize in Saturday’s A$250,000 Gr.3 HKJC World Pool Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben.
The New Zealand-bred son of Churchill opened his winning account in the Listed The Phoenix (1500m) at Eagle Farm last June, which was only the third start of his career. The Chris Waller-trained gelding had gone winless in nine races since then, but collected three placings earlier in his three-year-old season including the Gr.2 Alister Clark Stakes (2040m) and Gr.2 Autumn Classic (1800m) in Melbourne.
Imperialist went into the Rough Habit Plate as an overlooked $46 outsider after finishing outside the placings in the Gr.1 Australian Derby (2400m) and Gr.2 Queensland Guineas (1600m) in his previous two starts. He turned that form upside down with a standout performance on Saturday in the hands of jockey Tommy Berry.
Drawn the outside gate in the field of 14, Berry pushed Imperialist forward to sit outside the leader Shangri La Spring as the field passed the finish line with a lap to go.
Imperialist swung wide around the bend out of the home straight, but kept pressing forward to take up a front-running position heading down the back of the Doomben track.
There were some shaky moments just before home turn as Imperialist was headed and looked likely to be swallowed up, but then he lifted again. With another powerful kick early in the home straight, Imperialist shook free of his challengers and took command.
Imperialist put himself out of reach of the late-closing backmarkers, who were led by fellow Kiwi-breds Deep Focus, King Of Thunder, Maison Louis and Our Benefactor. Berry and Imperialist swept past the finish line with a length and a half up their sleeve.
“Full credit to the team behind this horse,” Berry said. “He has always had ability, but it hasn’t been easy to get the best out of him. Chris took the blinkers back off and we just changed things up a little bit in the hope that we’d get a result.
“Chris is the best trainer of stayers around, so if he thinks he can get the horse to stay, then he can get the horse to stay.”
Racing in the colours of long-time Waller client Noel Greenhalgh, Imperialist has now had 13 starts for two wins, three placings and A$387,850 in stakes.
“We didn’t know what to do with this horse after his last start, where we tried blinkers and it didn’t work,” Waller said. “So we took them off and suggested to Tommy that we ride him a bit closer to the speed today. He had a nice soft time up front and it sparked some interest.
“He brought some good form to Sydney from Melbourne, but then didn’t quite stay the 2400m in the Derby. I’ll have a chat to Tommy to see what he says, but I do still have some concerns over the 2400m in the Queensland Derby. The Churchills tend to be slightly speedier horses, so we’ll have a think over the next few days about where we go with him next.”
Bred by Curraghmore’s Gordon Cunningham in conjunction with Demi O’Byrne’s Arkle Bloodstock, Imperialist is out of the Fastnet Rock mare Dancing Hare, who in turn is out of a Sadler’s Wells daughter of outstanding producer Solo De Lune, whose 11 winners included an incredible eight stakes performers headed by the Group One winners Cerulean Sky, L’Ancresse and Moonstone.
Imperialist was purchased for $170,000 from the draft of Curraghmore at the 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale at Karaka by Chris Waller Racing and Guy Mulcaster Bloodstock. Dancing Hare has a yearling filly by Satono Aladdin and a weanling filly by Ocean Park. She was served by exciting Cambridge Stud shuttler Chaldean last spring
