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| Hot In Herre - Australia's beloved 'Nelly' has been retired |
Trainer Peter Moody made the announcement early this morning (UK time) and his star seven-year-old calls it a day with an unblemished perfect record of 25 wins from 25 starts with 15 of those coming at G1 level.
Black Caviar’s last appearance on a race course and her last win came this past Saturday in the TJ Smith Stakes where she was as dominant as ever against a top class field.
Moody is reported as having said that after a long chat with the horse’s owners that they “…decided 25 was a great number to go out on.”
Black Caviar is probably best known to the majority of UK race-goers for her heart-stopping victory at Royal Ascot last summer when she held on by the narrowest of margins as regular jockey Luke Nolen eased up on her close home and nearly got pipped by French star Moonlight Cloud.
It had been widely expected that she would be retired after her UK jaunt so to get another three races out of her has been a great bonus especially in the wake of Frankel’s retirement.
I’m a little sad she won’t return to the UK again this year as she clearly wasn’t right in the Golden Jubilee and she still beat a high class field, and there are still plenty of doubters out there that are eager to claim she’s beat nothing and it’s a shame that those ignorant views won’t be changed now.
The majority of people appreciate her for what she is though and that’s a once in a lifetime superstar and I’m really going to miss seeing her on the track. Although there was an air of inevitability about her races it was still a great thrill to watch them and I don’t recall another race that had my heart racing before and after that I had no financial interest in like last year’s Golden Jubilee.
With Frankel and now Black Caviar in retirement Racing will need to find a new global superstar and hopefully something can step up and take on that role if not fill it completely.
Black Caviar’s headline-making ability will certainly not move in to retirement with her though because she will undoubtedly be the hottest female breeding commodity in the world now and there is still of course the tantalising prospect of a date with Frankel at some point in the future.
For now though the Racing world should unite in thanking the horse affectionately known as ‘Nelly’ for all she’s done for the game over the last few years and whatever the reason may be for this somewhat impromptu retirement we have all been privileged to be able to appreciate and enjoy a mercurial talent for twenty-five glorious races.
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