Beyond Black Caviar – The legacy of equine perfection lives on for Neil Werrett

Part-owner Neil Werrett was heartbroken when Black Caviar died 12 months ago, but the continued success of her remarkable family has been some solace for he and the crew of friends who raced the unbeaten superstar.

A year ago this week, a day before her 18th birthday, Black Caviar died. But the solace that can be found amid tears and vigils at the Scone Veterinary Hospital, is that the story didn’t end there.

Racehorses die but bloodlines and legacies live on, as do memories.

Stories become folklore; told and re-told.

Few of us are afforded experiences like Black Caviar. The racing Gods are too stingy. One in a million stories are just that. Perfection is usually a myth.

But racing stories can be tragically Shakespearean. Phar Lap died in the arms of Tommy Woodcock, Secretariat and Sunline to the same cruel, common and untreatable affliction as Black Caviar; laminitis.

The great care of vets, the fortnight-long vigil of one of her owners, businessman and breeder Neil Werrett, could not curtail nature’s path.

With laminitis, the soft tissue that attaches the coffin or pedal bone of the hoof wall becomes inflamed and wastes away. It is as common in pet ponies as thoroughbred heroes. It is almost always terminal.

As her condition worsened in the weeks leading up to her death, Werrett left his Sydney home to be by her side.

In the best racing stories the horse is often greater than its achievements. Friendships are created and consolidated while horse careers come and go.

“Our lives changed in ways we could never have imagined,” Werrett said.

No racing story of our lifetimes had reached the heights of Black Caviar.

A week before her famous, heart-stopping victory at Royal Ascot, where her owners were welcomed into the world of the Queen and the future King and Queen of England, the Australian sprinter was splashed across the front page of a London paper; Nellie and Frankel. Werrett glanced at that front page a week before that final Saturday of Royal Ascot and thought “bloody hell”.

Everyday Melburnians, not mere horse racing fans, assembled at Federation Square close to midnight to watch Australia’s darling compete at the world’s greatest race meet. This was beyond horse racing and sport.

Such was the reach of Black Caviar.

Four years earlier, lifelong friends and wives had spent a week on a houseboat near Echuca, a tradition of 40 years. The Maddens, the Wilkies, the Taylors and Werrett and his partner Lena had pledged that no matter where their lives took them, they would always “do the houseboat thing”.

As the sun set on the river, Gary Wilkie suggested they all buy a horse. For no reason, he wanted a filly and everyone, bar one couple who fatefully declined, agreed.

That’s where it started, on a houseboat.

“Some of us had known each other our entire lives. Our grandparents knew each other. We bought her so we could see each other at the races, that’s all. We had no idea those races would be all over Australia and to Royal Ascot,” Werrett said.

No horse, even an immortal, is invincible.

Black Caviar gave birth to a Snitzel colt. She was carefully medicated and in no pain, other than birthing, but the laminitis was terminal. She was euthanised and seasoned vets and studmasters wept.

The foal did not survive the drama of its birth. It died a day after its mother. He was Black Caviar’s eighth foal.

For those closest, losing her was like losing a child. Not just her owners. Strapper Donna Newman wept for a week. Moody cried in his car for an hour.

Moody and Luke Nolen, who’d sometimes remained on track for hours to autograph Black Caviar caps, had booked flights and were poised to join the vigil but cancelled at the last minute.

Moody told The Age: “Mick Malone said to me, ‘please come and say goodbye but if you want to remember her how she was rather than how she is, don’t come’. And ultimately we made that decision.”

Werrett comforted Black Caviar until the end.

“I basically lived at the Scone hospital for two weeks,” he said.

“It was like losing a parent or a sister or a child. She meant so much to all of us. It was a heartbreaking thing. Everyone was crying, even the vets.

“She was never under any pain, thankfully. It was a normal, natural birth. But after she gave birth to the foal the vet said ‘we have to put her down’. It would have been cruel to have kept her alive.

“Mick Malone … he and his team were with her 24 hours a day, trying to make her comfortable. It was a very sad part of an unbelievable journey, that’s for sure. It couldn’t have been any sadder. We mourned her as we would have a family member.”

Black Caviar’s mating – putting Helsinge to Bel Esprit – was conjured up by astute Nagambie breeder Rick Jamieson. In the world of big corporate tents, Jamieson is “Harry The Hirer”.

Jamieson is a pedigree nut. His formula is his secret. He rarely speaks publicly.

Black Caviar may have died but Jamieson’s great bloodline has been enduring. Werrett has been a major part of that story, too.

Black Caviar’s sister Naturale produced Ole Kirk, a Caulfield Guineas winner and leading first-season sire. Black Caviar’s half-brother All Too Hard, bred at Gilgai Farm by Jamieson, and at Vinery, alongside his “nephew”, is a leading sire.

Werrett’s investment in the family beyond Black Caviar began when Moody was underbidder for the then-yearling All Too Hard. Nathan Tinkler bought All Too Hard, who would win three Group 1s before Werrett bought back into him as a stallion.

Black Caviar’s foals have been hit and miss. The owners decided to never sell a foal. The first, Oscietra, was trained by Team Hayes while Moody was in temporary retirement.

From her six foals to the track, five were winners. One, Prince Of Caviar, is now a stallion in his own right.

According to Moody, Invincible Caviar (I Am Invincible) “was the most like mum” and won four of eight starts but perished in a stable accident.

Moody said he’s no breeding expert “but the great mares do seem to struggle to pass it on”.

“Their daughters often do a lot better, don’t they?” he said.

Werrett not only has raced Black Caviar’s progeny with the great mare’s other owners but he has invested in the broader bloodline.

“I bought into All Too Hard at Vinery because of that breeding,” Werrett said, adding Ole Kirk was targeted for the same reason. He was bought for $675,000 at the 2019 Inglis Premier Sale by Mark Player’s International Thoroughbred Solutions on behalf of a syndicate headed by Werrett.

Ole Kirk won a Golden Rose and a Caulfield Guineas for Team Hawkes, the same stable that had trained All Too Hard.

But Werrett’s remarkable run with this family does not end there. Nepotism, a Brutal colt identified by Player for Werrett, was purchased for $160,000. He is out of Brigite, an unraced half-sister to Black Caviar and a sister to All Too Hard.

In April, he became the fourth descendant of Black Caviar’s dam Helsinge to win a Group 1 race, the Champagne Stakes. He shapes as a leading three-year-old ahead of the spring for Team Hawkes, as well as part-owners Werrett, Madden, and Jamieson.

Werrett has not given up hope that Black Caviar’s direct bloodline will rise from relative mediocrity. None of her sons or daughters have reached great heights, but the success of the family gives Werrett plenty of hope.

“I have a couple of nice fillies and colts from her progeny about to start to race – in fact six in total – and it will be interesting to see what happens,” he said.

“We live through Black Caviar’s progeny now. Persian Caviar (4YO by Written Tycoon) will trial next week and we have hope for The Autumn Sun colt (who has just turned two).”

Black Caviar’s ashes have been kept safe for a year as her former connections grapple with what to do with them.

Werrett knows there will never be one as good, not for him, his houseboating co-owners, or anyone.

The Winx crew also know it. But racing is a game of hope.

“Unfortunately, there won’t be another that good and nor should there be,” he said.

“We’ve had Gold Trip win a Melbourne Cup and the Champagne Stakes was a big thrill with Nepotism, and Ole Kirk was a great horse.

“But we know what we had with Black Caviar. There will never be anything like her and we are going to keep trying, but we are more than OK with that.”