There will be a taste of what is to come when Australia’s unbeaten champion Black Caviar returns to the racetrack for an exhibition gallop at Caulfield this Saturday.
Whetting the appetite of her fans, the exhibition gallop comes ahead of her scheduled return to racing in the Group 1 Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) at Flemington on Saturday, 16 February – an event which opens the 2013 Global Sprint Challenge and has been newly named in her honour.
Should she start, it will mark the third time Black Caviar has contested the GSC’s opening race and if successful, will see the world’s highest rated sprinter add a 23rd straight win to her score card.
Her expected inclusion in the Black Caviar Lightning is a fitting curtain-raiser for the GSC, the world’s premier sprint series which encompasses 10 Group 1 races across six of the world’s foremost thoroughbred racing jurisdictions, GSC Committee Chairman, Leigh Jordon, said.
“We are delighted to see Black Caviar gearing up for a return to the racetrack in the newly renamed Black Caviar Lightning, which again opens the Global Sprint Challenge and is one of two legs to be showcased in Australia this year,” Jordon said.
“Black Caviar has been successful in five Global Sprint Challenge races to date and her feats in traversing the globe to win a leg of the series at Royal Ascot last June epitomises what this series is about, that is showcasing the best thoroughbred sprinters right across the globe.
“It will be an historic moment when Black Caviar resumes racing and a truly fitting note on which to commence another exciting and lucrative Global Sprint Challenge.”
Inaugurated in 2005, the GSC provides international recognition to its champions and a US$1 million bonus to the owners and trainer of any horse which wins a GSC race in three countries.
The bonus – as yet unclaimed – will be split 75 per cent to the owners and 25 per cent to the trainer, with the pool shared equally should more than one horse achieve the feat.
In 2012 both Black Caviar (Lightning Stakes and Diamond Jubilee Stakes) and star Japanese speedster Lord Kanaloa (Sprinters Stakes and Longines Hong Kong Sprint) came within a single victory of a massive payday after they claimed GSC races in two countries.
While it is yet unclear as to whether Black Caviar will return to the location of her last victory, Australian trainer Paul Messara has this week nominated comeback sprinter Mic Mac and new acquisition Soft Sand for the third leg of the GSC, the Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m), to be held on Dubai World Cup night, Saturday, 30 March.
Messara’s stable star Ortensia is likely to go head-to-head with Black Caviar in the first leg of the GSC before travelling to United Arab Emirates (UAE) where she has been nominated to defend her Al Quoz Sprint (1000m) title, a non-GSC Group 1 sprint on Dubai World Cup night.
The second leg of the GSC will be conducted at Japan’s Chukyo racecourse when the Group 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen (1200m) is held on 24 March, before the focus shifts to the UAE, then heads to Singapore which hosts its only leg, the KrisFlyer International Sprint (1200m), on 19 May.
Attention then turns to the United Kingdom for a trio of glamour sprints beginning in June with the King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) on 18 June and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (1200m) on 22 June.
These races, conducted during the Royal Ascot meeting, are a primary target for Australian trainers, as is Newmarket’s Darley July Cup (1200m) held the following month on 13 July.
The series returns to Japan in September for the Sprinters’ Stakes (1200m) on the 29th, while Australia’s other GSC leg is the Patinack Farm Classic (1200m), held at Flemington on 9 November during the Emirates Melbourne Cup Carnival.
The last chance for gallopers to claim GSC glory comes in December when Hong Kong brings down the curtain on the series with the Longines Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) on 8 December.
The globe-trotting action and the stars of all 10 legs of the GSC will be documented on a revamped www.globalsprintchallenge.com, with the new look website to be launched next week.
