Weight expectations: Imperatriz faces toughest test in the $1.5m Newmarket Handicap at Flemington

Sprint queen Imperatriz faces her toughest test on Saturday in the $1.5m Newmarket Handicap at Flemington, as trainer Mark Walker weighs in on “disrespectful” Black Caviar comparisons.

Sprint queen Imperatriz has actual weight and a burden of expectation to carry in the $1.5m Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) on Saturday at Flemington.

The nine-time Group 1 winner has an opportunity to join Black Caviar (2011) as the only other mare to win a Newmarket Handicap with 58kg in the metric era.

Imperatriz has feasted on weight-for-age sprints the past 12 months, with victory in her past six starts, including five Group 1s.

The Lightning Stakes winner faces her toughest test on Saturday giving weight to key rivals, including Buenos Noches, Magic Time and Cylinder.

Te Akau trainer Mark Walker, who arrived from New Zealand on Friday, conceded weight was Imperatriz’s biggest threat on Saturday.

“The difference in weights, there’s probably four or five horses that could win it on their day, if they had luck and everything went well, it’s that sort of field,” Walker said.

“We wanted her peak run to be the TJ Smith (April 6 in Sydney) and we just felt the best way to do that was to stay in Melbourne.

“There’s an old saying, weight can stop a train, so we just got to see if we can cope with it Saturday, but it still gives us the best prep into the TJ Smith.”

Buenos Noches meets Imperatriz 4½kg better at the weights since he finished second to her in the Champions Sprint last November at Flemington, beaten only half a length.

Imperatriz with strapper Jason Levin at the Te Akau Racing stables in Cranbourne. Picture: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Despite the weight differentials, Imperatriz, a $2.50 favourite with TAB, holds 50 per cent of all money wagered with the bookmaker on the Newmarket Handicap.

Buenos Noches has been the second best backed runner (10 per cent of the pool) from Sghirripa, Cylinder and Benedetta (all six per cent).

Imperatriz has improved since winning the Lightning Stakes last month at Flemington.

The mare completed a secret spin around the course proper at Cranbourne last Wednesday.

Her last main piece of work was at The Valley last Friday.

“We know it’s going to be a big job Saturday, that’s for sure, but we feel she has prepared really well and if anything she’s come on with the run in the Lightning Stakes,” Walker said.

“She’ll need to as well, she needs to find more to win with 58kg, we’re hopeful she has.”

Imperatriz’s last defeat was exactly 12 months ago, on the corresponding card in Sydney, bloused on the post by Artorius in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes (1300m).

The $5.9m prizemoney earner has gone undefeated since and drawn comparisons to Black Caviar.

“She has been beaten before and if she gets beaten it’s not the end of the world,” Walker said.

“It would be nice to win (the Newmarket) but she can’t win all the time, unless you’re Black Caviar and she’s not Black Caviar.

“She’s a very good mare but she’s not Black Caviar, Black Caviar in my mind was a freak and she was undefeated for a reason, you can’t compare horses of different generations.

“It’s disrespectful to Black Caviar to compare her I think, she (Black Caviar) was just incredible.”

Walker is grateful to dodge the worst of the extreme heat on Saturday, with the Flemington card brought forward to a 10.45am start.

The Newmarket field is now set to jump at 12.45pm instead of 3.05pm as first scheduled.

Walker has Skew Wiff, a $34 outsider, also in the Newmarket.

“She’s certainly not there to make up the numbers,” Walker said.

“I’ve got a sneaking suspicion she’ll love running down the straight and we got the blinkers on, I genuinely think she’s a nice lightweight chance at odds.”

Originally published as Weight expectations: Imperatriz faces toughest test in the $1.5m Newmarket Handicap at Flemington