The record time for 5 furlongs on turf here is Starfish Bay's 53.75 seconds. That's an avg furlong of 10.75 for the entire race.
She did it as a 4-year-old for Pletcher at Gulfstream in 2010.
http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbP...try=USA&race=9
Raw times are always pretty useless without a variant. In the above example, the horses had a 150 foot running start till the timer was tripped.
I have no doubt Black Caviar has been the worlds best 5 furlong turf sprinter and is an all-time great at that specialist distance and surface.
A lot of Aussie and NZ breds have done very well in Europe. They've won 3 of the last 6 runnings of the Group1 King's Stand at 5f in England.
Black Caviar's only had one lifetime try beyond 6f and it was her least impressive race at home. She won a 7f Group 1 race easily -- but didn't run to the form of her typical wins. A Group 2 race also at 7fs was faster that day.
People go nuts for an undefeated record -- and couple that with a filly beating colts. She's obviously a great turf sprinter, but she's a turf sprinter. Never thought I'd see a turf sprinter get the love and hysteria that she gets.