Black Caviar could miss the Brisbane Racing Carnival due to transport issues

Black Caviar’s Brisbane campaign is yet to be set in stone, with the world’s best racehorse set to be one of the many victims of an indefinite suspension to horse transport by Australian airlines.

Trainer Peter Moody, who has planned to send Black Caviar on a two-race attack of the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival, was hoping to give the super mare experience on a plane ahead of her proposed Hong Kong campaign later in the year.

“A big part of the trip was to give her experience on a plane ahead of a possible trip to Hong Kong in December,” Moody said.

“But I’ve always got the option of floating her up (by road).”

Air Horse Transport spokesman, Chris Calthorpe, does not like Black Caviar’s chances of catching a flight to Brisbane next month.

“There’s been no movement of horses by air in Australia because of procedural changes for two weeks and I’ve been told it won’t resume until sometime after Easter, but nobody will give me an actual date,” Mr Calthorpe said.

Mr Calthorpe is hoping that Racing Victoria will take this opportunity to make changes to the current air transport system.

“We’ve had this problem for 10 years and it’s getting worse,” he said.

“Hopefully, Black Caviar brings this issue to a head and Racing Victoria does something about it.”

Peter Moody also said that the certainty of Black Caviar’s Brisbane campaign would not only come down to air transport, but also how she recovers from last weekend’s winning performance in the TJ Smith Stakes.

“Brisbane isn’t a given, anyway,” Moody said.

“I’m going to look at her up at Murchison at the weekend or early next week, if she doesn’t seem 100 per cent, the trip is off.”

Black Caviar is currently due to appear in the Group 1 BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben Racecourse on May 14, 2011, in the first of two Brisbane runs.