How Peter Moody is going to prepare Black Caviar for Royal Ascot will depend how the superstar can handle the 1400m trip for the first time in her illustrious career.
Black Caviar is stepping into new territory when she takes on the extra distance of the Group 1 $400,000 Sportingbet C.F. Orr Stakes at Caulfield tomorrow on her way to eighteen straight wins.
Moody has said for a long time that he would like to test the mare over a slightly longer journey after having conquered the shorter sprint distances in her seventeen wins to date.
Black Caviar has made all her wins over 1200m look effortless and Moody is very confident that she will have no problems running the extra distance and winning.
“It’s something I’ve always talked up and wanted to see happen,” he said.
“I’ve always felt she’d be just as explosive if not more so out to 1400 metres and I’ve suggested even possibly a mile (1600m) so this is a step in that direction on Saturday.
“I want to see her strong at the end of 1400 metres to give me a positive to going to the solid 1200s in England on those undulating tracks.
“It’s something I’m looking forward to having a look at and assessing that we do go to those races.”
Moody said that even though Luke Nolen had eased the great mare down on the line for most of her wins, this did not mean that she had any easy run.
Black Caviar could not have gone much faster than when she clocked 1.7.36 in winning by three lengths in the 1200m Group 1 $1m Lexus Newmarket Handicap down the Flemington straight last year and again when she ran 1.8.32 in winning the 1200m Group 1 $1m Patinack Farm Classic during last year’s Melbourne Cup carnival.
“I don’t think anything’s effortless. I don’t think the fact Luke (Nolen) has eased her down, it’s only been a matter of strides, and the times she’s run suggest she’s never had a soft run in her life.
“People look at it and say `God she’s gone easy’ but the times suggest otherwise,” Moody said.
After the Orr Stakes Black Caviar will head towards the Group 1 $500,000 Futurity Stakes at Caulfield over 1400m in two weeks and then it will be decision time for connections on what path to take on the way to Royal Ascot.
The Melbourne Racing Club is expecting a mammoth crowd of 25,000 to 30,000 to turn up to see the unbeaten mare go for her eighteenth straight win to equal Ajax’s winning streak back in the late 1930s.
If she wins on Saturday, Black Caviar will only need one more win to share the Australasian record of nineteen wins in a row with Gloaming and Desert Gold.
