Peter Moody ducks Black Caviar's date with the media

12-06-2012

The Telegraph UK By HOTSPUR (J A McGrath) 6:27PM BST 11 Jun 2012

Peter Moody, Black Caviar’s trainer, has sidestepped potentially the biggest media circus to gather in European racing in two decades.

Moody has informed Ascot officials he will be unable to attend the traditional press conference at Newmarket on Thursday. He is now expected to arrive in here on Thursday evening.

Not since the days when the Francois Boutin-trained Arazi drew crowds of reporters from both sides of the Atlantic, embarking on his three year-old campaign at Saint-Cloud in 1992, has there been such media interest in a foreign horse.

But whereas Arazi was unbeaten in eight starts going into that year’s Kentucky Derby – he had won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs with an incredible sweeping run around the entire field – Black Caviar comes to Britain unbeaten in 21 starts and is long odds-on to land the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, her Royal Ascot objective, on June 23.
Moody, who has brought horses to the Royal meeting on three previous occasions, is known to have preferred the option of staying in Australia and Asia with Black Caviar, but the venture to Britain is driven by the great mare’s 10 owners, who are said to be savouring the experience.

News that Moody would not be present to answer questions has left a sour taste with many, but Nick Smith, Ascot’s head of communications and international racing, said: “As long as the horse is there, and she is OK and settled in, that is the main thing. Obviously, we would have preferred it had Peter been there, but it’s not down to me,” he said.

Before Nelly, as Black Caviar is known in the stable, left Melbourne on her international adventure, Moody hosted a conference at his Caulfield stables in Melbourne, which was attended by 65 journalists, unheard of in the dead of winter.