News

Team Caviar sweep the pool at Victorian Racing Awards

15th Aug 2011

Racing Victoria - Sunday, 14 August 2011

The domination of Black Caviar, her jockey Luke Nolen and trainer Peter Moody continued off the track at Sunday night's Victorian Thoroughbred Racing Awards presented by Tabcorp at Crown.

In the most anticipated showdown of the awards, sprinting heroine Black Caviar defeated middle distance champion So You Think in the race to be crowned 2011 Staging Connections Victorian Racehorse of the Year.

Both horses won four Group 1 races on Victorian tracks during the 2010-11 season, but it was Black Caviar who was adjudged the standout performer by members of the Victorian racing media who lodged votes on a 3-2-1 basis.

Black Caviar amassed 150 votes to So You Think's 134 with Americain (28) and Sepoy (17), both of whom were unbeaten in Victoria, the only other horses to reach double figures.

It was the second consecutive year that a Moody-trained mare had claimed Victorian racing's highest equine honour, after Typhoon Tracy won the title in 2010. It capped a memorable night for the Caulfield-based trainer.

Moody, 42, upstaged a star-studded field, including three-time winner Bart Cummings, to claim his first Fred Hoysted Medal in recognition of his efforts during the 2011 Melbourne Festival of Racing with Black Caviar, Typhoon Tracy, Do Ra Mi, Lights Of Heaven and Miss Gai Flyer.

The Medal, presented by Radio Sport National and voted on by a selection committee headed by the Australian Trainers Association (ATA), is awarded in recognition of the most outstanding training performance of the racing season.

The night's headline award, the Scobie Breasley Medal presented by Tabcorp, was won for the first time by 31-year-old Nolen who amassed 64 votes – 19 more than second placed Craig Newitt.

Ben Melham, the only other jockey to ride Black Caviar last season, finished third on 37 votes with four-time Medallist Craig Williams one vote back in fourth. Consistent vote getter Dwayne Dunn rounded out the top five on 35.

Nolen, who was also presented with his second consecutive Mitchelton Wines Victorian Metropolitan Jockey Premiership trophy, was the recipient of votes at 29 race meetings with Racing Victoria stewards awarding votes on a 3-2-1 basis for the best rides at each metropolitan meeting.

With interstate commitments following the Melbourne Festival of Racing, Nolen was restricted to just nine votes in the final four months of the season. Overall, he claimed the ‘three vote' at 12 meetings and at two of these; he was also the recipient of the ‘one vote' from stewards.

Interestingly, he was not awarded a vote for any of his five winning rides on Black Caviar. The Age Caulfield Guineas winner Anacheeva and Rokk Ebony Sandown Cup winner Macedonian were the only two horses on which he secured votes on multiple occasions.

Nolen's dominant Scobie Breasley Medal victory was replicated in the Tommy Corrigan Medal. Presented by Thoroughbred Racing Productions, the Medal recognises the premier jumps rider across Victoria and South Australia from 1 August 2010 to 31 July 2011.

Steve Pateman claimed his fourth Tommy Corrigan Medal in five years amassing 38 votes, a whopping 25 clear of second placed Gavin Bedggood. Third on 12 votes was Trent Wells, followed by Brad McLean (11), Tommy Logan (10) and Irish jockey John Allen (10).

In the night's most touching moment, Brenton Primmer's emotional return to the winners circle at this year's Warrnambool May Racing Carnival was voted by the public as the highlight of the 2010-11 season scoring a landslide victory in the TVN Most Memorable Moment award.

The ‘comeback kid' attracted 68.77% of the vote, followed by Black Caviar's Lexus Newmarket Handicap win (17.41%), Zipping's fourth Sandown Classic (8.02%), So You Think's second Tatts Cox Plate (4.61%) and Americain's Emirates Melbourne Cup win (1.19%).

Others to receive awards on the night were star apprentice Jake Noonan, who took home the IER Metropolitan Apprentice Jockey Premiership trophy, and Sunday Herald Sun stalwart Rod Nicholson who was presented with the VRC Bert Wolfe Media Award.