Black Caviar v More Joyous
Wrong place, wrong time for great mare More Joyous
11-10-2012
Matt Stewart From: Herald Sun October 11, 2012
GREAT, but not the greatest.
The wrong place, wrong time scenario isn't new - ask Glen Houseman, Stuart MacGill and Hay List.
And More Joyous.
Globally respected ratings firm Timeform probably best sums up More Joyous, whose 21 wins from 28 starts (including the last 13 on end in Sydney) and $4.4 million in the bank has helped her earn a Timeform rating of 128.
This puts More Joyous on equal terms with greats such as Atlantic Jewel and Maybe Mahal but well behind Black Caviar (136) and just short of Makybe Diva and Sunline (129).
Timeform's Gary Crispe said More Joyous can shrug off Atlantic Jewel and stand alongside Sunline and The Diva with a history-smashing win in the Toorak Handicap at Caulfield on Saturday.
No mare since Pendant, who won the Newmarket Handicap with 60.5kg in 1906, has lumped more weight to victory than the 60kg More Joyous will carry in the Toorak; not Makybe Diva or Sunline, who both carried 58kg to major handicap wins.
"She will have to run a 129 to win with that weight, you'd think," Crispe said yesterday.
Ratings aside, Crispe said More Joyous should be ranked in the Sunline and Makybe Diva class, even be considered in the same stratosphere as Black Caviar, if she can win the Toorak and Cox Plate at her next two starts.
Peter Moody, who trains Black Caviar, said More Joyous has always seemed to live in the shadows.
"She's a great, great mare," Moody said.
"But she's first lived in Black Caviar's shadow and now she even seems to be in the shadow of her stablemate Pierro."
Steve McKee, who co-trained the immortal Sunline with his father Trevor, said More Joyous had now reached the status only achieved by the greats of the turf.
"She has the scare-away status," McKee said.
"She didn't always have it. Two years ago you'd have been happy to take her on but of recent times she is so dominant, particularly in Sydney, that you want to avoid her.
"She reminds me a lot of Emancipation and (is) a fair bit like Sunline, although she's not as hard going as Sunline.
"I guess the thing missing is the Cox Plate and it remains to be seen if she can win it.
"She's carried topweight to win a Doncaster, like Sunline, but the Cox Plate is the race she might have to win.
"If she does that, then she's entitled to be regarded as one of the absolute greats."
Matt Stewart’s Top 10 mares
1 Makybe Diva, Black Caviar
3 Sunline
4 Let's Elope
5 Ethereal
6 More Joyous
7 Atlantic Jewel
8 Horlicks
9 Emancipation
10 Miss Andretti
Ray Thomas’ Top 10 mares
1 Black Caviar
2 Sunline
3 Makybe Diva
4 More Joyous
5 Emancipation
6 Let's Elope
7 Surround
8 Dual Choice
9 Ethereal
10 Maybe Mahal
TIMEFORM - Greatest mares since 1960
136 Black Caviar
129 Sunline, Makybe Diva
128 Atlantic Jewel, Maybe Mahal, MORE JOYOUS
127 Dual Choice, Emancipation, Miss Andretti
126 Horlicks, Citius, Let's Elope, Surround
124 Ethereal, Typhoon Tracy
Note: Peak ratings
