Black Caviar: A record that is hard to beat

As with any athlete, if the right conditions are presented the performance can be well above expectation. For Black Caviar this was clearly the case as she ran in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (G1) – a race she had won for the previous two years and was now renamed in her honour. 

As it turned out, Black Caviar had the habit of scaring off a few runners on occasions but having said that you can only beat who turns up, including two of her stable mates in Moment of Change and Golden Archer. It was only apt that in her third consecutive attempt at the rich 1000 metre sprint the planets would align to put on a breathtaking performance. There weren’t any Hay Lists or Bufferings to contend with, but for some reason they carved out the sectionals; so much so that Black Caviar would record a brilliant 55.42 sec in the weight-for-age sprint. 

It was as if she knew this would be her last performance at Flemington and she wanted to put on a show that everyone would remember.

And what better way to do it than to break the track record in the process. Peter Moody trained the first three placegetters.

Black Caviar retired in 2013 as the winner of 25 races from 25 stars including 15 Group 1 races and $7,953,936 in prizemoney.