Black Caviar: will bid for record 20th success at Adelaide on Saturday week
PICTURE: Getty ImagesSaturday week target in Adelaide for Black Caviar
Australia: Royal Ascot-bound Black Caviar will go for a record 20th straight win in the Group 1 Sportingbet Classic at Morphettville in Adelaide on Saturday week, trainer Peter Moody announced on Tuesday.
After watching the world's highest-rated sprinter cruise through an 800-metre workout on the course proper at her home track of Caulfield, Moody said Black Caviar would run in the A$400,000 Sportingbet Classic over 6f.
She would then go to the A$500,000 Goodwood, also run at Morphettville two weeks later on May 12, afterwhich she will go to England for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 23.
Ridden by her regular jockey Luke Nolen, Black Caviar had a full-scale jumpout at Caulfield on Tuesday. She jumped on terms with her rivals but was quickly a clear leader before opening up an eight-length buffer.
"She pulled up well - she had a good blow but she's coped with it all well," Moody said.
"She is still big in condition but you'd expect that. She's still three runs off her goal which is the Diamond Jubilee in mid-June.
"Had she pulled up clean in the wind it would suggest we were ahead of the game and she wouldn't have required the two runs, there wouldn't have been any reason to do it.
"But the fact that she's such a gross-doing mare, if I don't give her the two runs she's going to need a fair bit of work and they are Group 1s."
"Adelaide is theright option - she's got two short trips on the truck to get there and she'll come straight home after the first one.
"It gives her a three-week window before she heads overseas. It'll be late May, early June, we just want to keep her here as long as possible."
A win in the Sportingbet Classic would take Black Caviar one win beyond the Australasian record for consecutive metropolitan wins she currently shares with Gloaming and Desert Gold.
She would also surpass champion US mare Zenyatta who won her first 19 starts before being narrowly beaten by Blame in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Comments