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📻 IMPORTANT AUCKLAND UPDATE 📻
Imprevu seeking to plunder Northland riches
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • June 25th, 2025 1:30 pm
Imprevu will contest Saturday's ITM/GIB Sprinters Championship Final (1400m) at Ruakaka on Saturday | Photo: Kenton Wright/Race Images
Imprevu will head north to Ruakaka for just the second time this weekend, and trainer Janenne Dalley is hoping she can capture the lion’s share of the $60,000 purse on offer in the ITM/GIB Sprinters Championship Final (1400m).
Dalley has been on the search for better footing for her mare to see out her preparation and she is hoping she is met with just that on Saturday, having bypassed last Saturday’s Listed Tauranga Classic (1400m) in favour of the northern assignment.
“We looked at the Tauranga Classic, but it was just too wet for her, so we opted to go to Ruakaka instead,” Dalley said.
“I am very happy with her. She has only had the one start up there for a fourth and we are happy enough with that to go back up there, and hopefully the track is going to stay a decent (Soft) 5 or 6.”
The six-year-old daughter of Wrote heads into Saturday in good form, having placed in her last two outings, including last start at Ellerslie where she finished behind subsequent Tauranga Classic placegetter Midnight Scandal.
“She is very well in herself, and she has come through those last two races really well,” Dalley said.
Dalley hailed the ITM/GIB Championship Series as a great incentive over winter, and she was delighted to be able to qualify for the final by racing at Ellerslie.
“It is a great initiative,” she said. “We did it a couple of years ago and it is a great incentive to get up there when you have got a horse that you can keep ticking over that doesn’t like heavy tracks.”
Imprevu has drawn barrier one this weekend, a gate Dalley isn’t particularly sure will suit her mare.
“I am not sure about barrier one,” she said. “They haven’t raced up there for a long time and my son, Ethan, when he was riding, he said if you got the ace draw up there you jumped and were on the speed, you were always there.
“She can get back a bit but when she drew one at Ellerslie the other day, Hayley (Hassman) rode her well from that one barrier.”
Hassman is set to reunite with Imprevu on Saturday and Dalley said she gets a kick out of supporting young apprentice jockeys.
“Hayley is going great guns,” Dalley said. “She came over and worked her for me the other day and was very happy with her. She is a nice girl and it is good to be able to give apprentices a chance.”
Saturday’s race will round out the season for Imprevu, and Dalley has her sights set on attaining an elusive stakes scalp with her mare in the spring, having previously placed in the Gr.2 Westbury Classic (1400m), Gr.3 Rotorua Stakes (1400m), and Listed Legacy Lodge Sprint (1200m).
“She will go out for a break after this and she will look forward to the spring. Whether we kick-off back at Ellerslie for Hawke’s Bay or go to Waikato,” Dalley said.
“We will follow the same sort of path that we did last year and try and get her a Group win or placing. She puts her hand up every time.”
