Imperious Girl trotting up a storm
Gore trainer Brian Norman is excited to be the owner of unbeaten trotting filly Imperious Girl (Imperial Count).
Norman who loves his trotters, hasn’t bred too many squaregaiters in recent years but has developed and sold a handful of good ones, including Sky Commander which he sold to Merv and Meg Butterworth. He won three races for his Southland based trainer Brett Gray and a further thirteen in Australia.
“She’s got a bit more. She’s stronger and is very fast,” Norman said when comparing Imperious Girl and Sky Commander.
“I’ve sold a few that have won over $100,000 and a lot that have won a lot of races and had some nice ones of my own. But you’ve always got to sell to survive. Now I’m getting past my use by date, it doesn’t matter so much,” he added.
Norman borrowed Revenue mare The Sweedish Filly from Shane Forgie and sent her to the lightly patronised Imperial Count.
“He’s a most unrated sire in New Zealand. In his first season, of his first eight foals he got two runners in the Harness Jewels and out of those eight mares, three of them have won over $150,000. He was never really patronised so they sent him to Australia but one of my owners thinks that he’s back here this year.”
The Sweedish Filly won two races for Brian Norman and she’s a half sister to The Fiery Ginga who won twenty eight races and over $400,000.
Norman did all the early work with Imperious Girl.
“She was a pretty good two year old and trotted a 28 quarter, so I thought I’d better put her in the paddock before I got stupid (laughter). She’s the best trotter I’ve had. She’s got a nice attitude, she’s nice and healthy and has got everything going for her.”
Her owner took her to five workouts before he handed the reins over to Wyndham trainer Craig Ferguson. She qualified for Ferguson on the 11th April, winning by 15 lengths.
“She’d been there six weeks, I was at the workouts and he said ‘you’re not getting her back.’ I told him I’d kept a space in the truck especially for her. He kept saying he was just going to lock all the gates. It might work out good though because I hate travelling and Craig Ferguson loves it (laughter).”
In her first start, Imperious Girl was three back on the inside and when Kracka Karma broke, Ferguson was able to ease off the inside running line. She got a nice drag into the race and powered home to win easily by a length and a quarter with her ears pricked.
At her second start last Sunday at the Riverton Trotting Club meeting at Winton, she got into the inside running line, broke after 500 metres losing a conservative 30 metres and with a lap to run she was twelve lengths off the lead. At the 1200 metre mark Ferguson sent her forward and she looped the field to take up the running. She then powered away to win by 12 lengths, covering the 2400 metre stand in 3-04.7
Referring to her earlier preparations for racing, Norman said “When you got two lengths off the trail she didn’t like the stones and she’d throw her head and gallop. So I thought I’d send her down to Craigs for a month and get her to trail up. That’s what happened the other day. She got a couple of lengths off the trail, started to shake her head and galloped. Its only practice.”
So what’s next for Imperious Girl?
“Originally we were going out (for a spell) after the Gold Chip Final. The Southland Trotting Oaks are in September and I said to Craig we probably need a mobile start before that so we may look at going to Winton (24th May).”
Then later in the season the New Zealand Trotting Oaks will be held at Addington, where she’s likely to face the likes of Duchess Maria, Our Col and Petite Armour.
“I’d really like to win the Trotting Oaks. That’s the only race I care about. I don’t care about the New Zealand Trotting Cup.”
Surprisingly, Norman has fielded only one sales inquiry for his trotting filly.
“They’d have to be rich to get her off me. We’ve only had one enquiry and he wasn’t in the right ballpark.”
And the Gore trainer has plenty of young stock to go on with. He bred and owns the first colt left by Oscar Bonavena which he’s named Mark One Easton. He’s out of Andover The Keys, a two win Andover Hall mare that’s a half sister to Sovereignty (28) and La Femme D’Argent (7)
He also has a filly by Oscar out of Dolly Jones, a Monkey Bones daughter of Galleons Destiny, making her a half sister to Destiny Jones (10).
“They’re nice and friendly both of them.”
by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink
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