Peter Moody says only some sort of “curve ball” could cause the defeat of Black Caviar in the Group One William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Rated the world’s best sprinter, the unbeaten Black Caviar is out to land her 11th straight win and her fourth successive Group One victory.
She meets her rivals from the Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Flemington earlier this month a lot better under the weight-for-age conditions for beating them easily.
Moody said all of his four acceptors, the others being Hinchinbrook, Master Harry and Panipique, deserved their places in the field.
“Crystal Lily ran super in the Newmarket and is a Golden Slipper winner,” he said.
“I know my other three horses are stakes quality and I have high opinions of them.
“But being realistic, on exposed form there is going to have to be a massive turnaround for those horses to defeat her.
“You would think there would (have to) be some curve ball, something would have to go wrong with her and hopefully that’s not the case.”
Moody said it might be a good thing if there was some rain on the track before Friday night after Melbourne’s dry spell for the past couple of weeks, but added rain during the meeting making the track slippery would be a worry for all trainers with runners in the race.
He said the Newmarket effort was “very draining” on Black Caviar.
“She knew she had a run. It took a couple of days for the horse to bounce back, more so than she had previously,” Moody said.
Newmarket runner-up Crystal Lily meets Black Caviar 5.5kg worse under the weight-for-age conditions for a three-length defeat, while King Pulse (fifth) and Hinchinbrook (sixth) meet her 7.5kg worse for being beaten 6-1/4 lengths and 6-1/2 lengths respectively.
The super sprinter drops 1.5kg from the 58kg she shouldered as topweight in the Newmarket and Moody said she had “done super” since that victory.
“She hasn’t done a lot since the Newmarket,” he said, adding that Black Caviar had done little more than “just pacework” when working the reverse way of going on the steeple grass at Caulfield on Saturday morning.
“Tuesday morning she had a bit of a slip along here (Caulfield) on the course proper and I’m very pleased with her,” he said.
“There are no excuses, she’s been to Moonee Valley three times now. She’s undefeated everywhere so I suppose it’s easy to say she’s undefeated there.
“She’s held her condition well. She’s just tightened down that little bit more since the Newmarket condition-wise and there are really no excuses again.”
Black Caviar has opened up $1.10 favourite with TAB Sportsbet after Wednesday’s barrier draw where the mare came up with gate six in the nine-horse field.
Crystal Lily and Master Harry are at $15 with Panipique and True Persuasion next at $31.
AAP TURF
