Black Caviar Rewrites The Record Books
| Black Caviar Rewrites The Record Books 28 April, 2012 – Lisa Barrett |
Australia’s wonder mare rewrote the history books today with a breathtaking display in front of a capacity 30 000 plus crowd at Morphettville in Adelaide earlier today. The five year old mare made easy work of the field for the Group One Robert Sangster Stakes. Never looking bothered by the field, she was given the encouragement by her jockey Luke Nolan with about 600 m to, and gently and remorselessly eased away from the field to win by 4 lengths. This win takes her earnings to Aus$5,450,150.
Her 20th consecutive victory not only rewrites the Australasian racing record books, but the international ones too. Black Caviar is now in same constellation as some pretty amazing horses; the iconic Zenyatta (19 wins), Eclipse (18 wins), a 17th century racehorse who went on to sire over 340 winners in a lengthy career at stud, and after whom the prestigious Eclipse Racing awards in America are named; ,and Nearco (14 wins), the Italian bred racehorse and super sire, and patriarch of the most influential and dominant sire lines of racing today, namely Secretariat, Mr Prospector, Bold Ruler, Northern Dancer, Kris and Seattle Slew.
Black Caviar now faces her first major international test, when she lines up in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Gr.1) at Royal Ascot on June 23rd. For many a dream race would pit her against Frankel, but this is highly unlikely it would mean she would have to step up to race over 1200 m, against a colt who has one of the biggest strides in the world. Still it’s a mouth-watering prospect, and if her connections decide to try, then we could be watching one of the great races of the century.
The biggest question though is, can she compete successfully in the global arena, she’s only ever raced in Australia, where the grounds are usually harder and less forgiving,. In England she could face softer turf, which might slow her down a bit. However, her never-say-die attitude and ability to dig deep and produce the goods, could see the history books being rewritten again.
| Lisa Barrett – Guest Writer “Lisa Barrett”, her psuedonym, currently works at a stud farm in the KZN Midlands – a position she has held for the past eight years. She describes herself as “absolutely and totally besotted by horses” and she is in a fortunate position to work with a stallion she idolises every day. She describes herself as “continually fascinated by every aspect of the racehorse business, especially pedigrees!” |