Randwick all but ground to a halt while all eyes were glued on one horse … 1400km away.
Such is the appeal of Black Caviar.
The unbeaten wonder mare, racing to her 20th win in Adelaide, commanded all the attention on the final day of Sydney’s rich autumn carnival, at least for a few moments.
Randwick had its own cavalcade of attractions – four Group One races worth $1.8 million including the Sydney Cup, Pierro completing the two-year-old triple crown, Atlantic Jewel remaining unbeaten too, More Joyous capping off a dream run for trainer Gai Waterhouse and owner John Singleton, Melbourne Cup winners Efficient and Americain in action.
But at 4.23pm on Saturday, Sydney’s racing HQ all but stopped to follow the latest chapter in the fairytale of Black Caviar, the champion now being set for Royal Ascot.
They watched her on big screens in the flat, in the parade ring, in the members’ stand and in the bookies’ ring.
Gai Waterhouse momentarily interrupted her celebrations of another victory for More Joyous to watch.
Black Caviar was such a certainty she started at the virtually unbackable price of $1.04.
TAB Sportsbet resorted to pitting Black Caviar and Atlantic Jewel against each other in a head-to-head contest even though they were competing in different races, in different states.
Punters had to choose which of the two horses would win by the bigger margin (Black Caviar did).
Punters in Victoria could also back Black Caviar to win by four lengths or more, at odds of $1.90. She won by 4-1/2.
Australian Turf Club racing manager Colin Tuck said Saturday’s Randwick program had all the ingredients of the “best final day of the Sydney carnival on record”.
Track manager Nevesh Ramdhani said: “The only word I have is explosive. There is only one horse missing.”
