My Worries About Black Caviar
They are not major worries, but the confidence behind Black Caviar in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes is unprecedented and when that happens, things tend occasionally to go wrong.
I once had a runner, Debach Delight, start at odds of 22-1 odds-on in a race at Ayr. Everybody was confident and she did win by over a dozen lengths, but you always worry about something. After all, she might have stumbled out of the stalls and dropped the pilot.
They have shown pictures of Black Caviar and they all showed her running on a round course. Now Ascot is straight. So I have to ask, if she has ever run in a race on a straight course with fifteen runners? It can tend to unsettle a horse, the first time they do it.
The last worry, is that the two horses after her in the betting are French-trained. They always seem to get the odd surprise winner in England. This week so far we’ve had a few Irish winners, one from Hong Kong and one for Germany, but none from the French.
The Anonymous Widower 
No Black Caviar, is not used to this type of race, or such a heavy track . . .
But very happy with her race {Jockey was also a bit of problem} . . .
You were spot on the French horses were the worry . . . they were using the whips, much harder than is allowed in OZ . . . French horses ears back . . . Black Caviar, still the normal stance.
Royal Normally after a race, Black Caviar is not as frisky . . . glad to see tha Queen, getting close to give a Pat.
Comment by Steam Lover | June 23, 2012 |
When Choisir in 2003, won two races at Royal Ascot, they used the top class Irish jockey, Johnny Murtagh. They should either have used a local jockey or made sure he’d ridden in a couple of English races beforehand, to get experience. Racing in every country is very different.
English whip rules are strict, but they aren’t in France.
The Queen has changed in the past year and does things that she wouldn’t have done a few years ago,
https://anonw.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/the-queen-gets-light-hearted/
As to patting horses, she is probably one of the best horsewomen of her age in the world, although she doesn’t ride as much as she use to as she has a dodgy hip.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-13354575
She has also been known to tell trainers how they could handle their horses better. In one case she was proved spectacularly right.
So many people have said over the jubilee, that she’d have wanted to train horses, if she hadn’t been Queen. But then the genes are in the family, with Zara Phillips, her granddughter, now been chosen for the Olympics.
Comment by AnonW | June 23, 2012 |