The horse that has never been beaten has won again.
In an event which had only one genuine contender, Black Caviar has been crowned Australia’s Champion Racehorse for the second successive season.
The official imprimatur caps a season – and perhaps a career – in which Australia’s greatest horse went to the world, defying the ordeals of travel and injury to stretch her winning record to 22-from-22.
Black Caviar also earned official acclaim as the highest-ranked sprinter in the world, the highest-ranked mare and second only to the greatest horse on earth, the unbeaten English galloper Frankel.
Black Caviar’s back-to-back successes are a tribute not only to her, but to the team around her led by trainer Peter Moody and her eight owners who gambled her unbeaten record against international glory.
But most of all it is down to a horse who has become a national treasure to be mentioned alongside Phar Lap and Bradman.
As well as being named Australia’s champion racehorse, Black Caviar, automatically, won the Champion Sprinter title.
Moody, whose horses have now won the past three champion racehorse awards, proclaimed the success as his “one of my proudest moments in racing”, but not one that surpassed watching his champion mare win any of her 22 races.
“I’ve been blessed to have trained her, but I’m the one who walks behind her with a shovel,” Moody said.
“She does the rest.”
Black Caviar won nine of her 22 races during the past season, beginning with the Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield in October last year.
She then won twice more for the year in Melbourne before taking a break and resuming with victory in the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley in late January, followed by two more wins in Melbourne.
With 19 wins to her credit Black Caviar made two resounding appearances in Adelaide, the fourth Australian capital in which she has raced.
Moody and her owners then embarked on their most ambitious quest, to win before the Queen on her own racecourse at the world’s most prestigious race meeting – Royal Ascot.
The world’s fastest racehorse came as close as she ever has to defeat in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on the final day of the Royal meeting, overcoming serious injury and pilot error to squeeze out a narrow win.
The last horse to win successive Horse of the Year awards was triple Melbourne Cup heroine Makybe Diva who took out the title for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.
Before that another great mare, Sunline, won three successive titles from 1999-2001.
Other award winners:
Champion Two-year-old – Pierro
Champion Three-year-old filly – Atlantic Jewel
Champion Three-=year-old colt or gelding – Sepoy
Champion Middle Distance Award – More Joyous
Champion Stayer – Dunaden
Champion Jumper – Bashboy
Champion Sire – Fastnet Rock
Champion Group One Trainer – Peter Moody
Champion Group One Jockey – Nash Rawiller.
