After earlier speculations that a suspension to horse transportation by Australian airlines could see the Black Caviar express miss its stop at Brisbane next month, trainer Peter Moody has since confirmed that his superstar will indeed be in Queensland for the winter carnival.
Black Caviar is on track for the BTC Cup in Brisbane next month
Four-year-old Bel Esprit mare Black Caviar has emerged as the greatest sprinter to grace the Aussie turf in recent history and with Moody happy after inspecting her on Monday it is game on for Brisbane racing fans.
“That (the suspension to air transport for horses) won’t matter,” Moody said.
“Sure the initial plan was to fly her for experience ahead of a possible trip to Hong Kong later in the year but I am happy to send her by road.
“Barring an incident between now and then, she’s going to Brisbane…it’s just a matter of when.”
A winner of her first 12 starts consecutively, Black Caviar is also the first mare to score five successive Group 1 victories and she has now won over $3 million in stakes.
This season alone Black Caviar has started four times for four Group 1 wins, slaughtering her competition last start winning the TJ Smith Stakes by an impressive three lengths in her Sydney debut at Randwick.
Moody said that Black Caviar had pulled up superbly after the TJ Smith Stakes and she is due to return to his Caulfield stable next Monday.
Now Brisbane is set to experience some Black magic with Caviar to attempt her 13th straight metro victory in the Group 1 BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on May 14.
Having shown promise as a possible miler with her effort in the TJ Smith Stakes, Moody is also considering running his stable star over a slightly longer 1350m in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 during the winter also.
Another top mare that is not shying away from facing off against Black Caviar in the BTC Cup next month is the Gerald Ryan-trained Melito.
After Ryan and other connections were forced to shelve plans for an international campaign for dual Group 1 winner Melito this season, the daughter of Redoute’s Choice will now run in Saturday’s Group 1 All Aged Stakes at Randwick before heading up to Brisbane.
“If we were frightened of Black Caviar there’s other fillies and mares set-weight options but we are happy to go the Group 1 path again,” Ryan said.
