I Wish I Win brings Black Caviar team back together

I Wish I Win, the brilliant New Zealand-bred and owned sprinter, reunites the famous “Black Caviar team” of trainer Peter Moody and jockey Luke Nolen for the A$20 million TAB Everest at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Black Caviar is regarded as the greatest sprinter of all-time and was undefeated in 25 starts including 15 at Group One level, but The Everest wasn’t introduced until 2017, four years after the great mare was retired.
Although I Wish I Win is not Black Caviar, he’s a very talented sprinter in his own right and won the Golden Eagle and Gr. 1 TJ Smith Stakes last season. Moody has started the Savabeel gelding only twice in Sydney previously for wins in the Golden Eagle at Rosehill Gardens and the TJ Smith Stakes at Royal Randwick last season.
“I didn’t have him as a young horse but since he came to us he has always shown a terrific turn of foot and can sustain a long sprint,’’ Moody said earlier this week. “He’s a tradesman and he’s got a motor.’’
I Wish I Win is the early $4 favourite to win The TAB Everest and is Moody’s first runner in the world’s richest turf race.
Moody could be forgiven musing what impact Black Caviar would have had on The Everest if she had contested the race in the first few years. The Everest generates huge wagering interest, but when Black Caviar was racing she was usually at prohibitive odds and tended to stifle betting, such was her superiority.
“If Black Caviar was racing in The Everest’s infancy, would you have found the slot-holders?’’ Moody said. “I suppose the way it works the slot-holders have a good chance of getting a fair bit of their money back anyway.
“But when Black Caviar was racing, if The Everest was around I would have made all endeavours to get my own slot. Back then, with the stable I had around me, I might have done a Chris Waller and bought a slot for myself.’’
In fact, Black Caviar’s sprinting dominance a decade ago was so absolute, it prompted debate about running The Everest over a longer distance rather than risk having another sprint champion emerge and turn the race into a virtual foregone conclusion.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys revealed he had to argue against his own board to have The Everest over 1200m.
“The greatest debate that happened at the board, and the one that I took the biggest risk on, was because I was the only one that wanted the 1200m distance for The Everest,’’ V’landys said. “My theory was ‘what is Australia good at? We're good at the sprinting distance, we're good at the 1200m. What do we breed? We breed sprinters.’
“Everyone was concerned what if we have another sprinter that dominates like a Black Caviar, but that was a risk I was prepared to take.’’
Moody, who now trains in partnership with former stable foreman Katherine Coleman, returns to Randwick on Saturday with I Wish I Win, who has had just one lead-up run. That was seven weeks ago in the Gr. 1 Memsie Stakes over 1400m at Caulfield, where he ran a close third behind Mr Brightside and Princess Grace.
Vega Magic blazed the same trail in 2017 when he won the Memsie Stakes then had seven weeks between runs before beating all but Redzel in the inaugural The Everest.
“I tailored the programme for I Wish I Win but it was only afterwards I realised Vega Magic had done a similar thing,’’ said Moody, who conceded he would have preferred to give I Wish I Win another race three weeks out from The Everest, but there was nothing suitable.
I Wish I Win has remained at Moody’s Pakenham training base in Victoria and was not due to arrive in Sydney until early on Friday morning.
“We will follow our normal practice and send him to Sydney on Thursday night. He seems in good order, he’s a happy and content horse.’’
The seventh edition of The Everest is a fascinating race, attracting a typically competitive field of 12 elite sprinters and includes:
• Eight individual Group One winners that have collectively amassed nearly A$42 million in prize-money.
• I Wish I Win can become the first horse to win the nation’s two richest races after winning the A$10 million Golden Eagle last year.
• Shinzo is the first Golden Slipper-winning colt to contest The Everest.
• In Secret, Espiona and Alcohol Free are attempting to become the first mare or filly to win or place in The Everest.
Leading syndicator Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds has the Joe Pride-trained Think About It and Private Eye as leading chances in The Everest, but even he is finding it difficult to split his sprinters.
“They are very different horses,’’ Walter said. “Private Eye has the superior turn of foot and he has been there before, running second in The Everest last year. On his Premiere Stakes win, clearly he looks back to his best.
“With Think About It, I don’t know where he is going to get to because he just keeps winning and defying the figures.
“He doesn’t win by much as he doesn’t have sharp acceleration, but he surges and sustains his sprint. I will put it this way, either could win without surprising.’’
Godolphin trainer James Cummings has had some near-misses in The Everest with placings from Bivouac (second to Classique Legend in 2020), Trekking (third to Yes Yes Yes in 2019) and Osborne Bulls (third to Redzel in 2018), but he believes In Secret and crack colt Cylinder give his stable its best chance to finally win the big race.
“In Secret is feeling great, she has improved,’’ Cummings said. “With Cylinder, we’ve got (slot-holder) James Harron on the team and he is flying, it’s good to be associated with winners.’’
“We are very excited about Cylinder,’’ Harron said. “He has a good profile going into the race and James Cummings is confident the colt is ready to run well.
“We see the three-year-olds year in and year out run well in this race, and when Giga Kick was ruled out, we thought Cylinder was a good option.
“Cylinder, we feel, is the best three-year-old sprinter and is right in The Everest.’’