Champagne Could Dry Up with Black Caviar’s Brisbane Bout in Doubt

The freakish succession of sprint wins by Australia’s queen of the turf Black Caviar is looking less likely to continue in Brisbane with the mare’s trip to the Sunshine State now in doubt.

Black Caviar is now in doubt for the BTC Cup in Brisbane

Peter Moody’s unbeaten superstar Black Caviar stormed home in her Sydney debut last Saturday winning the $1 million Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) three lengths clear of the mighty Hay List.

The emphatic victory that had the 25,000 racegoers at Randwick up and cheering was a historical moment as Black Caviar became the first mare to score five successive Group 1 wins.

Plans from trainer Peter Moody were to send Black Caviar up in the air and over to Queensland to contest the $400,000 Group 1 BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on the opening day of the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival.

However, with an indefinite postponement to all horse transportation by Australian airlines, whether Moody will get the all clear to send the brilliant Bel Esprit four-year-old by air from Melbourne to Brisbane next month is now uncertain.

“A big part of the trip was to give her experience on a plane ahead of a possible trip to Hong Kong (for the Hong Kong International Sprint) in December,” Moody said.

“But I’ve always got the option of floating her up (by road).”

With the Brisbane Racing Club experiencing unprecedented interest for this year’s BTC Cup Day on May 14, for the Black Caviar express to miss its stop at Doomben would be a detrimental blow to Queensland Racing.

The chances of Black Caviar being flown up for the BTC Cup have been rated “at best 50/50” by Chris Calthorpe an Air Horse Transport spokesman.

“There’s been no movement of horses by air in Australia because of procedural changes for two weeks and I’ve been told it won’t resume until sometime after Easter,” Mr Calthorpe said.

“Nobody will give me an actual date.

“We’ve had this problem for 10 years and it’s getting worse.

“Hopefully, Black Caviar brings this issue to a head and Racing Victoria does something about it.”

After expressing a near certainty of taking his stable star to Brisbane post her TJ Smith Stake success, Moody is now more hesitant.

“Brisbane isn’t a given, anyway,” he said.

“I’m going to look at her up at Murchison at the weekend or early next week.

“If she doesn’t seem 100 per cent, the trip is off.”