Peter Moody’s magnificent Melbourne mare Black Caviar kicked off this year’s Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival in stunning fashion, the unbeaten beauty claiming her 13th consecutive win in last Saturday’s BTC Cup.
The Bundaberg Distilling Co. BTC Cup Day or Racefest 2011 featured a brilliant eight-race programme, but there was only one race and one horse the capacity 20,000 race fans at Doomben Racecourse came to see.
Held as Race 7 on Saturday May 14, the $400,000 Group 1 BTC Cup (1200m) was to be the arena for Australian racing history as four-year-old Black Caviar coasted to her baker’s dozen of successive victories.
Now a six-time Group 1 winner and $3.47 million earner, Black Caviar or the ‘Black Flash’ as her fans have taken to calling her, will back up Saturday week and attempt to equal the mighty Bernborough’s record of seven consecutive Group 1 wins in the $650,000 Doomben 10,000 (1350m).
On Saturday Black Caviar started as the odds-on favourite at $1.14 and didn’t disappoint the punters, fans or her connections.
After settling third in the eight-horse field, Black Caviar quickly moved up on the straight to challenge frontrunners Hay List and local three-year-old Buffering.
While the others were fighting at full force, Black Caviar was simply coasting and jockey Luke Nolen barley had to let her out of first gear as she easily pulled away with 150m to go and flew down the Doomben straight to win her Queensland race debut.
At the finish Black Caviar was two lengths the winner from John McNair’s Hay List ($5.50) while the Robert Heathcote-trained Buffering ($31) finished off the winning BTC Cup trifecta a further four and three quarters of a length away third.
While there were plenty of trackside punters getting their bet on the world’s best sprinter, the fans that really cleaned up from Caviar’s history-making win were the online customers that placed early wagers at Luxbet.
Leading local trainer Robert Heathcote may have missed out on the Group 1 thanks to the high-class interstate raiders, but he did enjoy a winning double in the day’s other highlight events.
First-up his veteran seven-year-old Humma saluted as a $21 roughie in the $115,000 Chairman’s Handicap (2020m) holding on to defeat a gallant Viking Hero by a nose.
It was a thrilling blanket finish with less than a length separating the first five finishers, John Thompson’s Count Encosta third, Femina Fashion fourth and Heathcote’s other starter Tabultate just finishing out of the top four in fifth place.
Then in the next race Heathcote was in the winner’s stall again with Fillydelphia showing a nice return to form taking out the $125,000 Group 3 Mitty’s Rough Habit Plate (2020m).
Emerging as a genuine Queensland Oaks contender, up-and-coming Bianconi filly Fillydelphia ($9.50) enjoyed an emphatic three length victory on Saturday over Hour Of Peril ($8) while Paul Messara’s $3.50 favourite Chateau Fort finished a close third.
Fillydelphia now sits as a $9 chance to win the $400,000 Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm on June 4.
To jump on the generous early Group 1 horse racing odds available on both Black Caviar in the Doomben 10,000 and Fillydelphia in the Queensland Oaks, head over to Australia’s premier online bookmaker Luxbet and open an account today!