Black Caviar’s connections had better get used to the level of media scrutiny they encountered in Newmarket this week.
The world’s highest-rated sprinter, who is undefeated in 21 starts in Australia, is in England ahead of her bid to win the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot a week on Saturday.
The five-year-old mare, who is as short as 2-7 with some bookmakers to win the Group One sprint, performed a routine piece of work at the headquarters of British racing on Thursday flanked by massed ranks of television crews, journalists and photographers.
“I don’t think we ever expected to deal with this sort of level of interest we’ve seen this morning – it’s massive,” Jeff O’Connor, racing manager to Black Caviar’s trainer Peter Moody, said.
“We are seeing a lot of media crews that aren’t normally racing followers today and that’s growing and growing.
“We didn’t know what to expect on that front but, seeing the turnout this morning, the interest next week is probably going to be a lot bigger than we thought.”
After Royal Ascot, Black Caviar has the option of running in the July Cup at Newmarket next month ahead of a return to Australia for the lucrative and prestigious spring carnival in Melbourne, where O’Connor suggested her career might come to an end.
“The race is there in July but this comes down to a horseman’s call,” he explained.
“It is a perfect time frame – three weeks after Ascot – but Pete and his boys need to sit down and make a decision.
“We are mindful that we do want to go home and race Black Caviar in the spring. With the trip here, there is the question mark about whether we will be able to get her back to race at Melbourne in October.
“We know that we’re closer to the end than to the beginning.”
More than 3000 Black Caviar fans are reportedly flying to England in order to witness the mare’s run in front of Queen Elizabeth II in her Diamond Jubilee year and O’Connor revealed some of the horse’s syndicate owners are desperately anxious as the horse bids to preserve her unblemished record.
“The owners will be so nervous. I’ve been with them for each of her wins and in the lead-up to her races they are physically sick and just don’t sleep,” O’Connor said.
“This will be worse as they’ll be on a plane from Australia for 24 hours and all they’ll be thinking about will be ‘are we going to be beaten?'”
Black Caviar’s mission has been made significantly easier by the defection of several international challengers who have been rerouted from the Diamond Jubilee Stakes to the King’s Stand Stakes, run on Tuesday over a furlong (200m) shorter at five furlongs (1000m).
Black Caviar’s jockey Luke Nolen will fly to England on Saturday after he rides at the Flemington meeting.
“If she shows up there in the form she’s left here in, they are going to be in for a real treat at Ascot I’m sure,” Nolen told reporters at Federation Square in Melbourne on Friday.
