We have seen plenty of top-class Australian sprinters over the past few years in the UK – Scenic Blast, Miss Andretti and Takeover Target are three names that spring immediately to mind and there is now another Aussie sprinting phenomenon on the track.
Step forward Black Caviar who has just recorded her tenth successive victory in her native land with a stunning turn of foot to slam a Group 1 field at Flemington to land the Newmarket Handicap over 6F at the Melbourne track. But unlike her compatriots, connections don’t really seem to be that keen on coming over to the UK to test her against the sprinting talent. Her trainer Peter Moody wants her to stay at home for the Australian crowds to enjoy, so British racing fans looking for Paul Nicholls racing tips won't have the chance to see her.
She looks a really speedy filly giving weight away all-round simply trounced her field covering the last 600 metres in 33 seconds and travelling like a winner throughout the entire contest. She is the reigning world champion sprinter and even the welter burden of 58kg (9st 2lbs) could not stop her on this occasion. With Luke Nolen doing the steering she literally pulverised the field just as her adoring fans and punters had expected her to do having sent her off the 2/11 favourite. She broke smartly and had the remainder of the field in difficulties by halfway before she burst clear at the furlong pole and coasted home to win easing down by four lengths.
The time she recorded was remarkable stopping the clock at 1min 07.36 seconds for the 1200M (6F), with the last 200 metres completed in 32.67 seconds and that includes her easing down, it was an excellent performance, and one that may ever be noted in a future Paul Nicholls Betfair column.
Unfortunately for UK race fans it looks unlikely that we will see her in the UK and we will be confined to watching her stunning performances on the racing channels or via the internet. Her reputation is growing by the day and she is thought to become the first Australian horse to win her first ten starts at the senior Metropolitan tracks around Melbourne, in fact she has never raced outside of Melbourne.
Some critics have suggested that she needs to tested further to enhance her claims but she looks pretty special to our eyes and we suggest that if you haven’t seen Black caviar in action you tap her name into and internet search engine and take a look at this extraordinarily speedy filly.
The world of horse racing is waiting in anticipation for Australian Black Caviar to take on the best of Europe at Royal Ascot later in the year.
The unbeaten six-year old has swept away all her challenges back home in Australia and has won the opening 16 races of her career with relative ease.
Peter Moody's mare is the world's top rated sprinter and behind only Frankel in the world thoroughbred rankings. Those following the best Royal Ascot betting will be keeping a close eye on things.
Black Caviar's next imminent task is on Friday in the Group Two Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley as she bids for win number 17. Connections are hopeful she can bring her tally to 20 without loss before she makes the trip to Europe later in 2012.
The race that connections are targeting at Ascot in June is the Golden
Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs. Last year, James
Fanshawe's four-year old Society Rock won the feature race at
the Royal meeting.
If his first run in Britain goes well, he could return again a month later at Newmarket for the July Cup, also over the same trip.
Connections have talked about the possibility of running Black Caviar in the Dubai Carnival at Meydan in March on World Cup night. She has been given an entry in both the Golden Shaheen and Al Quoz Sprint, although a decision about her participation has not been agreed just yet.
If Black Caviar does run in the Golden Shaheen, she is likely to come up against the Sheikh Mohammed-owned Sepoy who won nine of the his 10 outings in Australia but is now based in the United Arab Emirates.
Unbeaten in all 16 career starts, the Peter Moody-trained darling of the Australian racing scene has been given an entry in the five furlong turf contest the Al Quoz Sprint, and in the six furlong turf event the Dubai Golden Shaheen. The Dubaian authorities are reportedly ecstatic at the prospect of the horse rated the best sprinter in the world during the last 20 years making an appearance at the glittering event that attracts some of the best horses in the world from five different continents. Those making a horse racing bet will have a hard time picking a winner.
The six-year-old daughter of Bel Esprit is expected to compete at Royal Ascot in June where she will have a choice of entries, including the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes and the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes, but it may prove to be the international crowd that is set to flock to Dubai for the World Cup meeting that get to set eyes on Moody’s mare in the flesh before British racegoers at the royal fixture.
Black Caviar, an outstanding sprinter equally effective at five and six furlongs, has had three runs so far this term, hacking up in Group 2 company over five furlongs in early October before following up in equally impressive fashion over a furlong further just a fortnight later at Moonee Valley when beating Doubtful Jack by 6/1 lengths at the miniscule odds of just 1/33! Back in Group 1 company at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day, Luke Nolen’s regular mount toyed with the opposition in justifying odds of 1/25 in the Patinack Farms Classic.
Although European racing scribes were in ecstasy a couple of seasons ago as the Hungarian sprinter Overdose rattled up a tremendous sequence against mainly modest local opposition, in the southern hemisphere Black Caviar's achievements are far more impressive in that she is competing at the very highest level on each and every outing and those following the horse racing betting should remember this.
Peter Moody's five-year-old daughter of Bel Esprit landed her fifth straight Grade 1 victory in stunning fashion in front of a massive crowd who had ventured out specifically to see the 'wondermare' run for the first time in Australia's first city. Ridden as usual by Luke Nolen in the T J Smith Stakes over six furlongs, Moody's star was given a serious workout by Australia's other outstanding sprinter of the moment Hay List, who went scorching off into the lead then kicked on by a couple of lengths a furlong-and-a-half from home.
Not panicking, Nolen asked Black Caviar to change gear and go after the leader and to the gasps of the Sydney crowd she produced her trademark stunning burst of acceleration to surge past the front-runner inside the distance to win with something to spare. The mare that was cheered all the way down to post was given a tumultuous reception in the Randwick winners' enclosure where her trainer confessed to being more “relieved” than elated that she had delivered the goods yet again.
British racing fans are going to have to wait at least a year to see Black Caviar as even a deposition of officials from Ascot to Australia have failed to persuade Moody to bring the mar to Royal Ascot this term, although he seems keen to let her take her chance in 2012.