MY CALL - I'LL NEVER FORGET FEBRUARY 18. THAT WAS THE MOMENT BLACK CAVIAR AND I BONDED FOREVER
By David Fowler | Tuesday, February 21, 2012
David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.
Peter Moody rolled the dice on the weekend, but more importantly he sensed the mood.
He played a high stakes gamble which he didn't have to yet can now add "master-tactician" to his already bulging CV.
And I'm not simply referring to the decision to run Black Caviar in the Lightning.
There was more to this and Moody was the key player.
The mare, the trainer and the owners have nothing to prove or nothing to repay. They have delivered in spades to an adoring public and taken racing from the back page to the front page.
The industry should be eternally gratefully for this chapter of racing that still hasn't closed.
But "the industry" wanted more.
Yes the victories brought unprecedented crowds to the track but the whispers started. "She beat nothing" … "she beats four or five runners" … "rival jockeys are running scared".
This is not to cast any slight on her champion status. But several considered these races were becoming "no contests" and diminishing her aura.
Moody sensed the mood and had to take the hum out of humdrum.
The Lightning assignment was like a bolt from the blue.
When there was a perfect two week gap between a 1400m Orr Stakes and a 1400m Futurity Stakes why run in a 1000m Lightning slap bang in the middle?
"You want a contest … happy to help", Moody declared to the detractors.
Maybe it wasn't a high stakes gamble. Only he and Luke Nolen know how really good she is.
The rest is history but what a race!
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The racing hard-heads, and I suppose I include myself, can't complain about what was delivered in that 55.53 second pressure-cooker up the Flemington straight.
Yes, Black Caviar was short odds again, but even some of the smartest in the game thought this time she might be vulnerable.
This wasn't going to be a 1400m stroll and canter, but a flat-out 1000m tackled by the best in the land. No quarter to be given.
That vulnerability stayed with us right up to the time the gates crashed back.
What would unfold?
I'm convinced she has gears. She can go to sleep in a 1400m race yet there she was a week later neck and neck with her arch rival Hay List.
For God's sake, she ran one 200m section in 9.98!
And, of course, like me, you gasped at the 300m when Luke Nolen crouched forward and urged her … actually had to summon the diva to go to a gear rarely used.
Just like you gasped when Hay List shot out by three or four lengths up the rise in the T.J.Smith at Randwick.
Of course, both times she came through. Her colours have never been lowered.
How wonderful if she could remain unbeaten.
I believe the odds are shortening to achieve this rather lengthening because every race is one less to retirement.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit now that I was cynical of the hollow victories believing I deserved more.
Moody put it to us fair and square … "are you happy now, boys", I can almost hear him saying with that larrikin smile.
I will never forget February 18 at Flemington. That was the moment Black Caviar and I bonded forever.
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* Expect a Racing Queensland board member to step down soon should a conflict of interest arise. Odds-on it will!
* If you though the Gillard-Rudd fight to the death was entertaining, the forthcoming control of a key racing club is almost as enthralling except it's being played behind closed doors. Damm!
* Can you be tried twice for the same crime? Apparently so as some stakeholders have found to their dismay over the last few months.
Until next week.
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