‘Black Caviar’, the world’s highest-rated sprinter, will equal a modern-day weight-carrying record of 58 kg if she wins the million dollar Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on Saturday week.
The 1991 winner Shaftesbury Avenue is the only winner in the last 50 years to carry 58kg or more, while the only mare to win the Newmarket as topweight was Maybe Mahal who carried 56.5kg in 1978.
“Black Caviar was rated the world champion sprinter in 2010 and she demonstrated that she has improved further when she resumed with a totally dominant performance in the Lightning Stakes at Flemington on February 19”, Racing Victoria senior handicapper Neil Jennings said.
“That was her second consecutive Group 1 victory and on each occasion she has defeated many of her rivals in the Newmarket Handicap by significant margins which had to be considered when determining the handicaps”,
“Hay List receives a 3.5kg turnaround in weights for the Newmarket as a result and will carry 56.5kg”.
‘Hay List’, Group 1 winner of the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley last September, is the second highest-weighted horse of the 44 first acceptors in the Newmarket.
Dual Group 1 winner ‘Star Witness’, whose only beaten run down the Flemington straight was his second to Black Caviar, is the highest-weighted three-year-old in the race.
Star Witness will be retired to stand at Widden Stud in the Hunter Valley after an international campaign aimed at Royal Ascot in June.
Last Saturday’s Group 1 Oakleigh Plate winner ‘Eagle Falls’ received 55kg which is 2.5kg more than he carried when second to Wanted 12 months ago.
Written by Isaac Chaplin
