After a 16th straight win for Australia’s biggest equine star since Makybe Diva had appeared to clear the way for a cross-country trip to Perth to take on the best in the west in a fortnight.
But the ultra-cautious Peter Moody scratched his superstar after early morning track work on Monday, saying the effects of the Patinack Farm Classic on Saturday were obvious and so the flight across the Nullarbor was a bridge too far.
“We would have dearly have loved to have brought her over - but it was pretty warm on the day and the track was pretty firm,” Moody told Perth radio 6PR.
"She’s feeling the effects of that.
“It can look easy, but when she is running those times in those conditions - it is not.
"She knows she has had a run, it takes it out of her as much as it does a normal horse.
“If we brought her over there you would not get to see the best of her, and we would risk injury and even risk defeat.
“It could be worth $5 million in a fortnight unfortunately she would not be there ... the owners don’t need the money.
“We are not prepared to do that. Everything is about the best interest of the horse."
The news was a massive blow to the Perth racing fraternity, who were preparing for a minimum 30,000 attendance at Ascot to see Black Caviar run, after laying out the red carpet for Australia’s latest super horse.
Moody said the plan for the five year old was a short break, before three runs in Melbourne and then a trip to the UK to showcase her skills at Royal Ascot next year.
“She is probably going to have two to three weeks off,” Moody said.
“All being well, we hope to have back for the three runs in the autumn, and I would suggest they would be the last three in Australia.
“Everything is geared to go to the other Ascot, Royal Ascot.”
The reigning Horse of the Year claimed her seventh Group One victory when she defended Saturday's Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington.
But Moody said despite her massive following, he would not hesitate to make the biggest call of his career and end the amazing run of the unbeaten mare considered the best sprinter in the world.
“The day she suggests she has had enough or is is sick of racing I won’t hesitate to retire her - she has been too good to me,” Moody said.
“I don’t want to see the downside - and I will be the one to be kicked to death that day something goes wrong.”
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