Trainer Katrina Alexander didn’t want to scratch La Crique from the Thorndon Mile on Saturday but she knows it was the right decision.
Alexander and husband Simon drove La Crique from Matamata to Trentham on Saturday, watched three races and then scratched the hot favourite from the Group 1 mile because of the heavy track.
“We waited as long as we could and of course we didn’t want to take her out but we wouldn’t start her fresh-up on a heavy track,” says Alexander. “We spoke to Craig [Grylls, jockey] after he rode in race three and he said even though it was a 1200m race down the chute, the course proper was really wet.
“So we scratched her, and then when we watched the Thorndon and saw what a slog it was, we knew we had made the right decision.”
So the Alexanders trekked home yesterday with La Crique’s campaign still to begin, and with a target in the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa on February 11 and a rematch with Imperatriz, who she has beaten the last two times.