Superstar Black Caviar claimed her fourth consecutive Group One victory and stretched her winning record to 11 with a crowd-thrilling performance in the William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Rated the world’s best racehorse by Timeform ahead of dual Cox Plate winner So You Think, the unbeaten Peter Moody-trained mare was sent out at the prohibitive quote of $1.09 which looked luxurious after the race.
There were a couple of anxious moments for those that took the short odds as Black Caviar was trapped three wide in the early stages of the 1200m weight-for-age feature.
But she moved up to third coming to the home turn and when Luke Nolen pressed the button she quickly rounded up her rivals.
She raced away in the straight to score by 1-3/4 lengths from reigning Golden Slipper winner Crystal Lily ($15) who had been the race leader.
Black Caviar’s stablemate Hinchinbrook ($31) finished strongly to be another 1-1/4 lengths third.
“When I did (shake her up) she went away. That’s where she wins her races – in the middle stages of her races,” Nolen said.
“We put them away and sat up for the photo.
“She hasn’t gone backwards and she keeps winning with relative ease. You don’t have to do much more do you ?”
“When I went, there aren’t many horses who are going to go with her at weight-for-age for that distance, and you play to your strengths and that’s what I did tonight.
“The only instructions I got were ‘don’t hit her’.”
Moody suggested Black Caviar had to be woken up during the race when Nolen had to shake her up to get her going.
“He just had to wake her up a little bit on the night. It’s a bit late, she should be at home having a camp,” he said.
“She’s very relaxed and very laid back and she got the job done nicely I thought.
“Nothing worries her. Nothing fazes her at all. What do you say? She’s just gone and done the job again, full credit to her, it’s hard to take credit for any part of it.
“She’s just a machine.
“It’s just great to be a part of something that’s a great drawcard for racing.
A crowd of more than 10,000 attended the season’s night racing finale at Moonee Valley with the club hiring buses to bring people from country areas to see the great mare.
Moody won a $134,000 Mercedes-Benz GL350 for his horses passing the $1 million mark in prize money over the night racing season at the Valley while Nolen collected a $33,500 television for his mounts reaching the same target.
Moody’s plans for Black Caviar are a three-start interstate campaign taking in one race in Sydney and two in Brisbane.
She will go by road to Sydney for the $1 million TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 9.
After that she will return to Melbourne before being flown to Brisbane for two races, the BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on May 14 and the Doomben 10,000 (1350m) on May 28.
AAP TURF
