Hard on the heels of her 25th consecutive victory on Saturday, the champion sprinter Black Caviar has been retired.
In a press conference on Wednesday, her trainer Peter Moody said, “We thought long and hard about racing for another season. We thought about Royal Ascot. But we thought this was the right time to finish.”
Black Caviar’s facile performance in the TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick at the weekend secured her 15th Group 1 victory and a new Australian record for Group 1 wins, surpassing Kingston Town’s tally of 14.
The only time the daughter of Bel Esprit has raced outside her native Australia was when she lined up for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot last year. She gave her many fans a fright when scraping home by just a head from Moonlight Cloud but was later found to have pulled muscles mid-race.
Now six, Black Caviar started her extraordinary unbeaten run at Flemington on April 18, 2009. Her 25 victories saw her amass $7,953,936 (£5,395,960) in prize-money, while last week her half-brother by Redoute’s Choice set a new Australian yearling record when selling for $5 million at the Inglis Easter Sale.
Her syndicate of owners plans to make an announcement this week regarding which stallion she will visit first at stud, but sportsbet.com.au has already framed a market of likely mates, installing Coolmore’s champion sire Fastnet Rock as favourite.
