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There wouldn’t be too many people who can remember seeing Phar Lap race. If you’re interested in knowing what it was like, don’t watch a documentary or read a book: go to the races and watch Black Caviar instead.
You’ll get a more real-life perspective.
I did for the first time on Saturday, flying down from Sydney and I hope I never forget the day. In many ways it was magical.
I love racing when it becomes tribal. Two great horses form a stiff rivalry on the track and racing fans pick a side.
It is rare but it is special – Saintly vs Octagonal and Northerly against Sunline are two examples.
But I love racing even more when its sole focus becomes one horse – a champion thoroughbred.
When I get to the core of why I love racing – why I sometimes travel to midweek meetings that could easily be watched at home, to form part of an attendance figure wouldn’t hit 200, I think the main reason is the hope of spotting the sport’s next star.
It doesn’t happen often, but just enough to keep me coming back. Because there’s nothing better than following a Group One winner from as early in its career as possible.
And that’s probably the reason so many trainers are up every morning at 3am. They do it because they have to, but the reason they do it year after year is because of that eternal pursuit of the champion.
Racing doesn’t do a lot of things as well as the mainstream sports. But it has always had the champion, and the hope that a certain horse could develop into a champion, to carry the sport.
And at the moment Australian racing has one of its greatest champions in work, Black Caviar. So naturally, while she is racing, the sport is doing well.
But when the mare retires, I fear that racing will be back where it was when no-one knew anything about a horse called Black Caviar.
To understand what it’s like to see Black Caviar at the races, you must understand that when Black Caviar won Saturday’s Black Caviar Lightning Stakes 27,047 people were packed into Flemington, creating scenes I haven’t seen in a lifetime of race-going.
After the Lightning, when the final two races of the program were run, the crowd shrunk threefold. And this is where Black Caviar begins to draw parallels with Phar Lap.
Many people who saw Black Caviar at Flemington weren’t racing fans, they were fans of Black Caviar.
They weren’t interested in drinking, not interested in betting, not particularly interested in racing. Just Black Caviar.
For the first time I can remember, I didn’t see one intoxicated person at a Group One race meeting. It was probably the best behaved crowd I have seen at a major sporting event in this country. At the races! Remarkable!
In many ways it was the race meeting I have dreamt about attending for many years. A race meeting that was the celebration and adoration of a champion horse.
Black Caviar arrived at Flemington at 2.30pm, two hours before her race. From lunchtime, there was the biggest crowd at the raceday stalls I have ever seen at any meeting I’ve ever been to.
Nothing much happens at the stalls. It’s where the horses are kept on raceday. But it presents a fantastic opportunity for fans to get close to their favourite horse.
Normally, only a handful of people take up the offer. Yet on Saturday afternoon, there must have been 1000 people waiting at the raceday stalls to see Black Caviar.
Huddled around stall 91, hundreds of fans, myself included, sweated it out in 30-plus degree heat, wanting to get a glimpse of the champion mare.
But there was no sign of Black Caviar when I was there. I’m not sure where she was, probably being shod by the farrier or enjoying a pre-race wash. And even if she was there, I’m sure not how much I would have seen. It was packed.
It was the first of many firsts.
From 2.00pm the members grandstand was full. And no-one was moving. They had saved their seat to watch the great mare and they weren’t going to lose it. Usually, the crowd only fills the stands minutes before each race. It felt like Flemington on Cup Day.
When Black Caviar walked into the mounting yard, the crowd roared. Before the 1930 Melbourne Cup, Phar Lap received a standing ovation as he entered the parade but that was partly because he was late. On course, there were murmurs he would be scratched.
When Black Caviar walked up the race and onto the track, she received a warm applause. I’m not sure whether it was a release of tension from the crowd, or a well wish. It was probably a bit of both.
I’d also assume there were many people just happy to see her at the races after the injuries she sustained at Royal Ascot.
When the field was set, the crowd cheered, just as they do before every Grand Slam race (Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Golden Slipper) but they didn’t scream when the gates opened.
There was silence. All eyes were on Black Caviar. I actually thought she was a bit slow into stride but Greg Miles was keen to settle everyone’s nerves and he declared she “jumped well”.
I was worried for Black Caviar for only the first two seconds of the race. Because once she settled, it was clear I was watching the Nelly of old. She wasn’t going to lose.
When they entered the final 400m, the silence of the crowd was broken by loud cheering. The field came into view and Black Caviar was in control.
Then, as one, the grandstand stood to cheer home the champion.
I’ve been to three Melbourne Cups, watched two of them from the stand. And both times, to my surprise, the crowd cheered the Cup field home seated.
It takes a special moment to have a racing crowd on their feet. That, as much as anything, is an indication of the power of Black Caviar.
And this was a brilliant performance. Fitting in every way. Black Caviar too slick in front of her home crowd in her own race.
The best horse over 1000m the world has ever seen, winning the only 1000m Group One in Australia for a third time and breaking the track record by 0.08 seconds (about half a length) in the process.
It’s now official. Black Caviar is the fastest thoroughbred to have ever graced turf.
There is no debate, she is the greatest sprinter that’s ever lived. The title is secured by her record, times, massive stride (and hide!) and even bigger following.
And the scary thing is, in her fifth season of racing, she seems to be going better than ever.
When Black Caviar returned to scale she was greeted by a unanimous standing ovation. I’ve written before that post-race standing ovations are rarer than gold. It’s the first one I’ve been a part of.
After the race, the queues to buy merchandise – already long throughout the day – quadrupled. Everyone wanted something to remember the moment by.
And then, with two races still to be run, there was the mass exodus. The crowd saw what they wanted and they went home.
But all is not lost for racing. I haven’t noticed so many kids under the age of ten at the races since I was ten years old myself.
And when I was a kid horses like Octagonal drew me to the track, just as these kids were drawn to Flemington by Black Caviar.
I loved watching the ‘Big O’ race. When he retired, I was naturally disappointed. But I was keen to see the next champion – Might And Power. And then, the champion after him.
Eventually I began to love racing as well as its champions.
Hopefully in 20 years time, many racing fans will tell a similar story about their love of the sport which started with Black Caviar.
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