Strange how a whole country can get behind a horse. Black Caviar has beaten the competition easily in all her races, the jockey wasn't expecting such a tight race. Boy can she accelerate when she wants to ...

he is a great jockey.... feel bad for him that this happened.... one of those things....

he knew she wasn't right during the race.... and was trying to go easy on her... she had pulled back muscles and soft tissue damage when she pulled up.... she didn't run her usual race.... time was much slower... neck not arched.... ears not pricked.... I suppose he was calculating all these things during a fast paced race... a first race after such a long trip... and she is prone to injury from an incident coming out of the stalls very early on in her career where she pulled her chest muscles badly and had a lot of soft tissue damage...

the owners/jockey/trainer value her above wanting to flog her for the best times and winning margins..... she's a loved horse as well as a valuable future breeding mare....

he rode her, as she always wins.... coasting across the line.... but it was a bad miscalculation not to take into account that the Ascot finishing stretch is a little.... uphill... our courses out here are not.... that, and the fact she was injured... meant she pulled up a little faster than she normally would have when he stopped riding her... he got a shock when the engine... shut down..

still, he got away with it... and with the amount of money riding on her... just as well... or he would have been in bother with the stewards...

the trainer said if she was ridden solidly, even injured, she would have won by about a length... it's a pity she didn't run in her usual top form... to thrill the crowd with a whopper margin.... but as the trainer always says.... only takes 1/4 inch.......and...22/22 ain't bad....  

Have you seen this Syd

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/23477

  no, I hadn't, thanks....

well... it's certainly evoked some interesting feelings and reactions.....

it's just life.... not everything is cut and dried....

after the postmortems have been raked through......the self-recriminations eased......and the memories have faded... in the long run there will be left, black and white print... 22/22 ...and it won't really matter.... 'cause, for the history books... that's all that matters....