Dropping back from her only attempt at 1400m one week before, her rating of 136 would comfortably topple superstar Nature Strip, who is aiming to win his second Lightning Stakes on Saturday.
One of the factors that allowed her to be so fast was her stride length, which has been measured at a massive 8.42 metres. Theoretically at her top speed, she’d be covering a furlong in under 24 strides.
Being able to cover more ground per stride while still maintaining a well above average stride frequency, she could travel on the bridle at speeds that other horses would need to be under immense pressure to achieve.
We’ve seen in recent years as technology has developed that horses have been able to hit well over 70 km/h in races, but only for very short periods of time.
Black Caviar could be at her top for much longer, which allowed her to be the first horse in Australian history to break 10 seconds for a 200m split. That 9.98 sectional, between the 600-400m did occur in her 2012 Lightning Stakes win.
Fittingly, the world’s best ever sprinter, and the fastest at Flemington’s top speed came in her peak performance, at her favourite track, in the race now named after her- the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes.
Black Caviar retired in 2013 as the winner of 25 races from 25 stars including 15 Group 1 races and $7,953,936 in prizemoney.