Imposing Lass (NZ) Sets Up Queensland Oaks Bid

Exciting filly Imposing Lass (NZ) (Makfi) set her sights on next month’s Group 1 Queensland Oaks with a decisive victory in Saturday’s A$125,000 Listed Jaguar Xe Gold Coast Bracelet (1800m).

Trained and ridden by expat New Zealanders Bjorn Baker and Jason Collett respectively, Imposing Lass led throughout the three-year-old fillies’ contest. She was tackled in the straight but kept kicking strongly to beat Self Esteem (Stratum) by half a length.

Imposing Lass has now had five starts for four wins and a second, and this was her first attempt at stakes level.

“She's a bombproof filly who does everything right and once she found the front she was always going to take a lot of running down,” Baker’s stable foreman Jack Bruce said.

“Once Jason got her to settle she was able to kick strongly because she's a very push-button type of filly.

“Every time Bjorn has raised the bar with her she's handled it pretty easily.”

Bred by City Bloodstock Ltd, Imposing Lass is out of the Zabeel mare Imposingly. She is the dam of six winners from six foals to race including Group Three winners Full Of Spirit (Flying Spur) and Lady Cumquat (Duke Of Marmalade).

Imposing Lass cost $120,000 at the 2014 Premier Sale and has already earned more than that on the racetrack for owners S A Aspinall, C P Goodall, D B Carey & Mrs C A Aspinall.

The filly now has the chance to become the second Oaks winner of the season for Westbury Stud stallion Makfi, whose daughter Sofia Rosa (NZ) won the Australian Oaks in Sydney last month.