English Eyeing Off Black Caviar Pay Day At Royal Ascot

While Australia goes into Black Caviar mode ahead of her return tonight in the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley, don’t forget we won’t be the only ones tuning in to see her inevitable triumph.

More and more people from around the world are keeping an eye on her progress, especially in the UK where her popularity has sky rocketed.

The news that Black Caviar would be travelling to England for the Royal Ascot carnival combined with her unprecedented rankings from the World thoroughbred Council have made Black Caviar one of the flagship horses for the marketing department.

Nick Smith is the Head of Communications and International Racing for Royal Ascot and says plenty of officials over there will be sweating on her Australian results.

“It’s great to have her back on the track,” he said.

“She’s become a huge name over here, the World Thoroughbred Rankings have put her into context…the fact she’s mentioned in the same breath as Frankel.”

Indeed that’s the clinching factor for her popularity, the fact she’s regarded as the only horse on the planet worthy of challenging the unbeaten local hero.

An actual on track meeting between the two is hugely unlikely given their differences in preferred trip but simply having them at the same carnival is doing wonders for promotion.

“It’s big, it’s unprecedented at this time of the year over here when we’re all very much jumps orientated the amount of coverage this horse is getting,” he said.

“The idea that we’ll have Black Caviar and Frankel at the same meeting is tremendous.”

Smith is now just desperate to have her arrive in one piece but he wouldn’t be drawn into the debate of a Dubai stopover.

“That’s the sort of things that’s got to be down to Pete and the owners,” he said.

“I’m just delighted the end game is Royal Ascot, how she gets there is up to them.”

He does acknowledge though that the carrot in the Emirates is rather large.

“The owners might very well find the appeal of prizemoney in Dubai too hard to resist,” he said.

“It really doesn’t matter too much, if she goes to Dubai and wins she proves that travel isn’t an issue for her.

“On the minus side there’s another threat whereas her races at home are formalities.”

As for the step up in distance Smith believes she probably needs to be able to run a strong 1400m here if she’s to handle the undulating and notoriously tough 1200m at Ascot.

“I can’t see it being an issue for her really, 1400m  on the tracks she’ll be on there isn’t a huge test of stamina,” he said.

Having Peter Moody as her trainer is seen by many in the UK as a massive advantage and Smith has seen firsthand the dedication he shows.

“Pete’s been to the last three or four Royal Ascot meetings either with a horse or not and it’s all about banking knowledge,” he said.

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