ROB'S SHOUT - THE WONDER MARE TAKES CENTRE STAGE
By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, February 14, 2013
Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the multi-premiership and Group 1 winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.
It seems like only last week we were talking about the wonder mare and how she took on the best sprinters in the world at Royal Ascot and still won with only four or her twelve cylinders firing on the day.
Many feared that may have been the last time we would see Black Caviar on the race track, but this weekend we once again get to see her awesome majesty as she graces the track in the appropriately named ‘Black Caviar Lightning Stakes’.
She is aiming to make this her third Lightning in succession and it’s really only a formality for that to happen especially with her trainer and jockey saying they have never seen her looking in better physical shape!
I know all of the superlatives have already been used to describe her but coming from a man like Moody, who not prone to exaggeration, how daunting an assessment is that?
**********************************************************************************************
I am now sure I have made the right call in giving Buffering an extended lay off/spell leaving Black Caviar to carry on her winning ways in Melbourne.
I am pretty sure my bloke will get to lock horns with her again as she ventures up the Eastern seaboard on her farewell Aussie tour.
It will only be injury or illness which will ever stop her from continuing this amazing winning sequence.
In fact, this is one occasion where I am happy to admit the threat of the wonder mare resuming in the Lightning was enough to help us decide to bypass Melbourne in the Autumn, to give my bloke (Buff) a longer break and hopefully have him spot on for a crack at the Group 1 J Smith at Randwick on the 13th April.
In fact, on only five occasions in twenty-two starts has Black Caviar lined up in a field of more than ten runners and that hasn’t happened in her last nine starts on Australian soil (nor will it again on Saturday), meaning her reputation has all but ensured that she has eliminated the ‘luck in the running factor’ that often influences results in races with big fields.
I am in no doubt though that only bad luck will stop her heading up our way which has to be a great thing for racing.
Makes it damn tough or bloody impossible to win feature races when she is in the field but I do have to admit that for the good of racing I, like everybody else, would be pleased to see her enjoy continued success.
**********************************************************************************************
Last week I mentioned Kuchinskaya being a gain to the stable having transferred to me from down south but a trainer sometimes can get caught on the ‘horse merry go-around’ with Greytfilly being an example of one that has got away from me for the moment
The promising filly has now left my stable and joined Gai Waterhouse in Sydney who, incidentally, was the previous trainer of Kuchinskaya.
Yes, I am disappointed to have lost Greytfilly as she would appear to have a very bright future. I inherited her from another trainer and now the owner wants her competing in the upcoming Sydney two-year-old feature races.
I reckon the filly would have been better served to have had a break as she had been up for quite a while and this is the reason why I think she was reluctant to get out and running from the gates.
I think she needed a break from training.
Perhaps I will be proven wrong and Gai will get her jumping and running!
Good luck to her.
I naturally fully acknowledge that it is always an owners’ prerogative to do as they please if they pay the bills, but I can only call it as I see it, and I still don’t reckon I would have taken her south if I had been asked as I believe it is not doing the right thing by the filly.
I do feel it is a loss as we have put a lot of work into the filly, as no doubt the previous trainer had done as well, but I guess it’s just another lesson in horse racing … and there are plenty to learn!
Time will be the best judge of what was right in this instance and, who knows how things unfold, Greytfilly might even come back into my stable somewhere down the line.
**********************************************************************************************
At times like this I often think of Troy Corstens.
Troy fell in love with a filly at the sales a few years ago and at the sales he desperately wanted to take the filly home. He stopped bidding and let Pete Moody outbid him.
That filly was Black Caviar!
The highs and lows of racing and as an old trainer once said to me … “character building son.” Get used to it as this can be a tough caper!
**********************************************************************************************
My stable had another reasonable week with a few placegetters last Saturday and again on Wednesday and it was pleasing to see another winner come for the famous racing colours of Dato Tan Chin Nam.
‘That’s Karma’ resumed with a very good win over the surprising journey of 1200m on Wednesday.
Her lead up work has been good and it again shows how often middle distance horses can perform well first up over shorter sprint distances.
Perhaps she can now go on with the job as she gets over her preferred distances.
***********************************************************************************************
But, for this weekend at least, all focus will be on one horse.
Enjoy the delight that the wonder mare will bring on Saturday and behold the greatest sprinting mare the world has ever seen … yeah, just another superlative.
Cheers,
Robert
More articles
|