Black Caviar wins 14th race in a row

Published Oct. 8, 2011 4:36 a.m. ET

foxsports

Black Caviar raced to her 14th straight victory, winning the Schillaci Stakes on Saturday at Caulfield to match the feat of the great Australian thoroughbred Phar Lap.

Black Caviar, the 5-year-old marre ridden by Luke Nolen and trained by Peter Moody, won the 1,000-meter race by four lengths. Black Caviar began the day paying $1.06 for a win, the shortest price for a favorite in a Group race in Australia for 50 years.

Owned by a consortium of five families and friends, most of them vegetable growers in Melbourne's southeast, Black Caviar won two races as a 2-year-old, three as a 3-year-old and eight last year as a 4-year-old, including six Group 1 races.

Black Caviar ended up paying $1.07 for the win in the $200,000 Group Two event.

''It's a relief to have her back in great shape and doing what she loves and putting on a great show for the crowd,'' Moody said. ''She's a fully developed mare now and this will be her best campaign.''

Black Caviar has actually outdone Phar Lap, who won 14 straight races in 1930-31, but finished second in his first and last race that season. Black Caviar has never lost a race.

Her owners will consider an invitation to compete in next year's meeting at Royal Ascot, outside London. The program has two of the top sprint races in the world - the King's Stand Stakes and the Golden Jubilee Stakes on the Global Sprint Challenge series.

Black Caviar has her own website (http://www.blackcaviar.net.au), Facebook page and Twitter account and was cheered on by thousands at Caulfield in a race that is not normally the featured event of this meeting.

Nolen said it was ''remarkable the attention'' that his mount receives.

''We're probably in that media age where everyone in the industry is more accessible, even the equines as well,'' Nolen said. ''It's great that she brings fresh faces to the races and generates great headlines for racing.''