Girl Power - the Road Ahead

The autumn carnival rolls on, and we begin to look forward to what lies ahead.  I will, alas and woe, have to miss Black Caviar's next start, as it was never on my agenda to do.  It is tempting to have a last minute change of plans and come down for the William Reid on Friday week, but  flying out of Canberra on the spur of the moment  usually means the airfare will be far from affordable, so I have pushed that thought firmly out of my mind.  They will have to come to me, or at least to where I plan to be, for the time being.

This weekend I  travel on to Sydney for the Ranvet and Coolmore Stakes meeting.  My other favourite girl, the equally glamourous More Joyous is nominated for, and all things going well should be running in the Canterbury Stakes.  Like Black Caviar, More Joyous has already proved her ability to carry record weights (58kg in the Toorak was also a weight carrying record for a 4yo mare), and she will stick to the WFA path until she again faces the handicapper in the G1 Doncaster Handicap on Saturday 16 April.  She'll be asked to carry 56.5kg in the Doncaster, which is 0.5kg off the topweight, which is Whobegotyou at 58kg.  Interestingly the handicapper gave 57kg to the champion Black Caviar, who is of course not running in the mile race.  I wonder what  her weight would  have been in the famous Randwick mile had the weights been issued after last Saturday's Newmarket performance!  More Joyous may yet have to carry more than her allotted 56.5kg, in the event that the horses weighted above her do not eventually start in the race.  The Doncaster Handicap has a minimum top weight of 57kg, so if the higher weighted horses do not accepted, weights are raised until the next top weighted horse carries 57kg.  Gai Waterhouse indicated yesterday that Theseo was likely to run in the George Ryder and the Queen Elizabeth, so unless "Whobe" runs More Joyous could well be topweight, as  Rangirandoo must at this stage be seen as unlikely.

Sunline carried 57.5kg as a 4 year old and was very narrowly defeated by the 3yo Over (carrying 51.5kg) in 2000, then she carried 58kg as a 6 year old mare in 2002.  She remains the modern day benchmark over distances greater than 1400m in my eyes, although interestingly Black Caviar has now been given a Timeform ranking of 135, which puts  her up around the lofty heights of Kingston Town and Tulloch.  This is high praise for a specialist sprinter.  

The Melbourne entourage of Black Caviar is scheduled to come to Sydney on AJC Derby Day, on Saturday 9 April, for the G1 TJ Smith Stakes, where I will of course be waiting impatiently.  Waiting and patience has never been my strong suit.

As to her future targets, her trainer Peter Moody apparently said he will only ever stretch her speed to 1400m, but one doubts that this would be in this preparation.  It is surely Pie in the Sky stuff  to hope for a Black Caviar  v More Joyous, clash, after they both respectively wallop the fields in the TJ and Donny, in the All Aged Stakes on the final day of the Randwick Carnival on 22 April.  But it would be something though, wouldn't it!  Black Caviar's intended presence in Queensland might lure me North later this year though as she's scheduled to run in the Doomben 10,000 from memory.  

My filly Karuta Queen is apparently ok, and pending the results of the blood tests taken after Sunday's Black Opal Stakes defeat, she will track on towards the Slipper.  I won't be seeing her this week, and perhaps not next, as Neville just wants to put his head down and concentrate on his filly, and that's fair enough.  I hope that come 29th March though, all things going well, that I can still, as arranged, be there to photograph  her final piece of fast work before she takes on the might of Sepoy in the Golden Slipper.  We'll know far more about Sepoy after today, when his very likeable trainer Peter Snowden is supposed to decide whether his colt will run in Saturday's Todman Stakes.  And Saturday will tell us a great deal as well as to whether Sepoy can manage to peak twice and win both the Blue Diamond and the Slipper.  However, I am pretty sure that my mind is set on Girl Power this Autumn though, so my heart still belongs to my fillies for Slipper Day!

Sunline.  One of the Greatest.

Black Caviar.  Timeform rating of 135!!!!

More Joyous.  Wonder mare.

Karuta Queen.  Keep trying filly.