Black Caviar ready to head home from Britain
- BY:BRENDAN CORMICK
- From:The Australian
- July 06, 2012 12:00AM
Black Caviar is preparing to head home from her successful UK trip. Source: AdelaideNow
CHAMPION mare Black Caviar’s bags are being packed for her flight home.
Still recovering from muscle tears, the unbeaten sprinter is due to leave Newmarket to board her flight on Sunday (UK time) and arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.
In a shock development for another acclaimed international performer, dual Cox Plate winner So You Think was found lame in his box at Ballydoyle in Ireland and will miss the race intended to be his swansong early on Sunday (AEST).
So You Think was trying to become only the sixth horse in 126 years to win the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown back-to-back, having won the Group I race last year. It was to have been his final UK appearance before returning to Australia to begin his stud career.
International Racehorse Transport has booked Black Caviar’s return flight with Cathay Pacific and she will be accompanied on the journey by former leading Italian galloper Voila Ici, who is to become her stablemate and be prepared by trainer Peter Moody for a tilt at the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
Black Caviar will spend a mandatory 14 days in quarantine at Werribee before having a two to four-week lay-off. She will be back working in Moody’s Caulfield stable about eight weeks before the $750,000 Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on October 26 if she is going to race on.
In the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot 13 days ago, Black Caviar badly tore the quadriceps and sacroiliac in her hindquarter and has been undergoing laser therapy since.
Despite the soft tissue injuries, she was able to narrowly defeat Moonlight Cloud and post her 22nd straight victory.
Owners’ spokesman, Dr Stephen Silk, said this week that Moody only had the best interests of Black Caviar in mind and would make his recommendation regarding her racing future in the coming months.
“He’ll make an assessment as she progresses through trackwork whether she will return to the (race) track in the spring or not,” Silk said.
“No one can predict that. The mare will tell us. Peter, with his guiding eye, will make those decisions when she has completed her spell.”
Race clubs are vying for the right to honour Black Caviar with a race bearing her name. Applications are being made to the Australian Race Pattern committee by Melbourne and South Australian race clubs to alter the name of existing races.
New Zealand jockey James McDonald, who dominated during the Sydney autumn carnival, has returned a positive urine sample to a diuretic in Hong Kong and been stood down from riding pending analysis of another sample.
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