Ferguson heads to Addington with unbeaten filly
Wyndham trainer driver Craig Ferguson knows that unbeaten filly Imperious Girl (Imperial Count) will have to race against some serious horsepower in Friday night’s $60,000 Macca Lodge Sires’ Stakes Three Year Old Fillies Classique at Addington.
“I’m as happy as I can be at home. She’s only had the one workout and we would have liked to have had a lead up race or another workout, but it just didn’t pan out that way,” said Ferguson.
The three year old filly is unbeaten in the south. Her wins have been against moderate competition but she has been impressive.
“Obviously it’s another step up for her. Her work at home has been every bit as good as it was last time. We’re expecting her to go well but she’s taking on some pretty nice company. There’s a couple there that have the aid of having some starts under their belts. It’s going to be tough.”
Imperious Girl last started on 24th May in a mobile trot at Winton, winning by three and a quarter lengths and running a track and Southland record for the 1609 metre trip of 1-56.8. And her previous win was by 12 lengths.
On Friday night she’ll start from barrier six.
“It’ll only be her second ever mobile. There are no plans. She’s got a bit of early speed if we want to use it.”
In Friday night’s trotting feature she faces impressive last start winner Marikit and the unbeaten filly Duchess Maria who makes her long awaited return to the track.
“We’ll get a bit of a guide on how she goes and I’m expecting a fair bit of improvement from the run. If she goes a good race and looks as though she’s going to foot it with those better ones she’ll be aimed towards the Trotting Oaks.”
Ferguson will also start Massive Merc (Muscle Mass) at the meeting.
He’s had only four starts for the stable, winning three. His only miss was at Addington when he was left wide before sitting parked and fading to finish thirteenth.
“In hindsight we probably shouldn’t have taken him. We thought he’d come through his previous run well, but with the trip up there it just really wasn’t the best of days for him. He seems better this time and is heading up there a bit on the fresher side. I’m picking we’ll see a far better version of him.”
In his last start on 24th August over a mile, he got to the top, dominated and won by seven and a half lengths in 1-58.4.
“He was good in that start and we’d planned to line him up a bit sooner but he had a bit of a bump to the leg and we just had to have him in the pool for a week. He seems pretty fit and well. His work at home has been really solid so we feel he’s forward enough to go to Addington and go a good race.”
Massive Merc has drawn the outside of the front row for Friday night’s race.
“We’ll see what happens inside of us but he’s a big rolling type so we’ll let him slide forward a wee bit. I wouldn’t be frightened to put him into the race.”
by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink
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