EIIR
Heir Presumptive
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2011
- Messages
- 2,656
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- United Kingdom
Regarding the horse discussion - Black Caviar is a mare, 22 wins in a row is sensational, compared to Frankel's 11 (a colt). Black Caviar has won against male opposition more that once. I dont want to take anything away from Frankel, he's great horse, but to travel to Ascot from the other end of the world must be daunting for an animal and she still delivered, on an unknown track and not being used to soft ground. The jockey messed up, too, eased her up too early. And, as an owner, especially as an aussie owner, you really have to have guts to do what he did, possibly getting slandered by the pommies.
Nobody said Black Caviar would crush the opposition (apart from the media) but being bullish is part of the trade.
All of this is true. I am merely giving my impression, as someone who doesn't know a whole lot about horse racing, on Black Caviar during today's race. We don't see any Australian racing on TV here in the UK, so the vast majority of British punters only knew what we'd read about her in the press lately when she was described as light years ahead of every other horse. For whatever reason, whether it be jet lag, jockey error, or the horse got out of the wrong side of bed this morning, the impression given was of a good horse who didn't look a whole lot better than the other horses racing against them.
The owners were clearly coming here to make a statement. Not that their horse is a bit better than the others in the field, but that she's the best racehorse the world has ever seen. The racing community in the UK already knew about Black Caviar; this was about showing the regular punters in the UK/Europe what she could do. My family and I happened to watch the race together today and none of us went away thinking 'I was privileged to see that horse'. Just that it was a bit better than the others.
Frankel was imperious and people were literally gobsmacked about how dominant he was in the Queen Anne. Sometimes you just have to say, that horse is in a league of its own.