Racing: Mare's name etched in fame

Luke Nolen salutes the crowd as Black Caviar strides to the line. Photo / Courier Mail

In real terms, what can a champion do for sport?

Well, the 20,134 that packed Doomben Racecourse on Saturday would have strong opinions.

Not that the rest of the racing world, committed to watching on television, missed what Black Caviar meant to thoroughbred racing with her A$400,000 BTC Cup demolition.

It started two weeks earlier and if it didn't quite have the "let's-shoot-Phar Lap" dramatics of 80 years ago about it, it was pretty damn interesting.

They hid Phar Lap for days before the 1930 Melbourne Cup after a bookmaker-inspired plot saw a shotgun fired at the champ.

They hid Black Caviar too.

When she arrived in Queensland from Melbourne she did so under a new name "Set For Fame", pretty apt when you think about it.

Brisbane Racing Club track manager Bill Shuck leaked on Friday that he had managed to keep the arrival a secret for two days.

After Saturday's remarkable scenes at Doomben, all is now forgiven, but Shuck confessed he had even lied to chief operating officer Darren Condon and club chairman Kevin Dixon.

"I told no one that this Set For Fame that arrived was actually Black Caviar," Shuck said.

"I told the security guards that she was basically being used for security arrangements because Black Caviar was arriving on the Thursday.

"I told Kevin Dixon she wasn't here and when Darren asked me I said, 'No'. I didn't even tell my girlfriend.

"She's now talking to me again."

Trainer Peter Moody, doing a magnificent job of promotion and availability in his original home state of Queensland, summed it up beautifully.

"All the attention can be a pain in the backside, but I'm glad I've got the pain and not someone else."

The crowd scenes on Saturday harked back to pre-free racing on television days when everyone had to go to the track to see racing.

Even bookmakers were moved and that's like putting a heart in a statute.

Black Caviar, who takes all this adulation in her long stride, played her part when the call came.

Thank God for Hay List.

Without him the odd cynic would be saying "Okay, she won 13 straight, but she's beat nothing".

Peter Moody described Hay List on Saturday as "The second-best sprinter in the world", which is not unreasonable. Without Black Caviar we would be saying, "Wait until Hay List tackles the Pommie sprinters in a month or so, he'll run them ragged".

And he probably will.

Black Caviar's greatness is that she makes Hay List look like a hack.

And he's not.

After being three wide around the home turn and eased up late, she ran the last 600m on Saturday in 32.87 seconds on a track that wasn't lightning fast. Horses can't run that fast, not normal ones anyway.

She's not normal.