Lots of speculation she was hurt/injured during the race, which if true, makes her performance even more amazing.

It's a good thing the flight from Australia to Europe doesn't go over the Rockies.

Lol premature jock elation is the quote on twitter.

Also seeing a lot of injury/retired tweets. Shame. She looked choppy. We might be whipping a jock who was preserving his injured mount.

Dandy Boy just ran a second faster...

Linky. Not a great picture (clearly someone just video'd his or her TV), but for those of us who didn't get to see it live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzbrC...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjSOqlEs6qo

The race in 480p

There was a minimal chance at best that she was gonna run down the hill in November anyway... Just imagining how fun to watch that would be.

Also, we need to lighten up on the jock, because Nolen nose best.

Fun enough to make a trip to see it.

Black Caviar vs. California Flag. Giggity giggity.

I agree. What's happened is TVG and the ginger clown they hired for the show jumped immediately on Nolan for the ride.

Pure emotional response and it's valid at the time but now it's time to reflect. She didn't look all there today and still won.

Interview with Luke Nolen on TVG coming up...either that or he left a pint with Simon.

Caviar! Oh, I love this great race mare! Thanks, Team Caviar!

Nolen admits immediately he underestimated track, made a mistake. Sez don't emphasize his "brain fart". Moody says "you only have to win by 1/4 inch".

I know Nelly has had chest muscle tears in the past from a start she bad, but her right front suspensory has been a problem in her career for some time now (required time off already). Hope it's alright, so they will continue to race her through the end of the season, not send her to mommy-hood yet!

But whatever happens, this great mare has nothing to prove. Bravo, Black Caviar! And Luke Nolen, and Peter Moody!

PS, here's yet another video I found, official feed http://www.joe.ie/sports/horse-racin...scot-0026205-1

Nolen said afterward he’d underestimated the testing nature of the Ascot turf, which was laboring and slow-playing Saturday, assuming that Black Caviar had done enough to win.

That was from DRF.


From me:
"It's nice to know that the maximum IQ requirement to be a jockey is recognized internationally instead of just in the USA and Italy".

I can think of maybe only two or three jockeys ever who were clever enough to fool jockey regulators into thinking they were stupid enough to be permitted to ride horses for a living.

He admits he lightened up too early, but he gets credit for not basking in glory before the line, and keeping his eyes open for that fast closer - he got his horse back in work three strides and won. He's a good jock.

Handicap older horses - you don't want to win by any more than the minimum it takes, or you'll carry weight next time. Hard for me to get used to, seeing them back off before line and pose as soon as the race is run. Not often done in America. Anyway, Nolen did a good job, won the race on a great mare.

At what point in the race exactly did she look free and clear?

I musta missed that.

Right before he eased up on her he had her clear by a length or so (of the 2 horses that tried passing her).

Guess you did. Where he sat still after Caviar was in front of the four closest challenging horses by a length. She looked clear to me, too, at that point, yet the good outside closing horse got it's feet and put in another acceleration. Beautiful performance by this closing horse, too! Nolen beat off that second challenge.

Good race!

PS watching it again, she started on her left lead, switched to her right lead for two furlongs downhill, but then spent the majority of the rest of the race on her left lead. Wonder if her right front suspensory is bothering her again, or something new?

Are the Breeders Cup people proactive enough (and have the extra means) to put more incentive into a race to get her (and/or Frankel) to run? Even if Caviar gets a long layoff, get in a prep in late September/early October in Australia, and if she comes out of that alright, send her over.

Say if the Turf Sprint were worth 2 million instead of a million?

I actually thought the 3rd place horse might've had the best chance if the jockey gave him a clear room more soon than he did. He kept the horse in-pack while the 2nd place horse shifted towards the rail a lot sooner and got a much clearer run.

Yeah, good point. No saying this mare was not tested here.

Look at it this way ... Nolen got ahead of them, then gave them four strides to catch up again, then beat them again ;) What a great race horse.

Hope all is well with the mare. As for her and frankel....can someone prevail upon the bc folks to get rid of some of the lame, ridiculous races and throw that purse money into the races that would draw top int'l stars? Quality over quantity!!

Enjoyed black caviar, hope nothing serious is amiss.

I often find it interesting the way people see the same event different depending on what your position was going into it. I will say that I didn't want her to win for reasons that I've stated before that are admittedly, kind of dumb. I won't say I over or underestimated her because I wanted to reserve judgement until I saw her against better competition. I credit her for getting the job done, especially if she did it while injuring herself. I think she proved herself as a legit racehorse to those of us that had our doubts as to her ability. I don't think that she proved herself to be one of the two best horses in the world and I don't even think top 5-10 is accurate. I didn't think it was the jockey error that almost got her beat either. It was so quick that I really doubt it cost her. I don't think she even had time to process his relaxing and starting back up so fast. I don't think it's even possible for her reaction time to be that quick.