Ken Callander: Just enjoy Black Caviar for legend she is

WAS Black Caviar the best ever? The honest answer is nobody knows.

Black Caviar

WAS Black Caviar the best ever? The honest answer is nobody knows.

I have been going to the races a minimum twice a week for the past 50 years and I haven't seen better, but can you really compare her with Vain, with Galilee, Manikato, Kingston Town, Super Impose, Might And Power, Sunline, Makybe Diva or Lonhro?

Some pundits favour long-distance champions, others prefer those who carry big weights or those, like Super Impose, who come from last.

The one thing Black Caviar has on all of them is nothing ever beat her. She won 25 from 25 over four states and in two countries and, if you backed her, you collected every time.

Vain won 12 out of 14 and there were excuses both times he was beaten. Kingston Town won 21 successive races in Sydney at one stage of his career, he also won three Cox Plates in succession, but overall he tasted defeat 11 times (often through atrocious luck) in compiling a 30 wins from 41 starts record.

Black Caviar never needed excuses and if she had bad luck she overcame it.

Comparing Black Caviar with the greats of yesteryear, particularly those who raced as long ago as Phar Lap, Bernborough and Tulloch, is fruitless. Memories fade and legends grow.

It is like comparing Bradman with Michael Clarke, Johnny Raper with Joey Johns, Les Darcy with Jeff Fenech and Murray Rose with Ian Thorpe - all were out and out superstars but they played to different tunes in different eras.

I heard a commentator on Fox Sports on Tuesday saying Black Caviar only won in a field of four in one of her races. He did not mention that in Phar Lap's 36 wins he beat one opponent twice, two opponents five times and three opponents nine times. Similarly Tulloch won in a field of three five times and in a field of four nine times.

That's the trouble. Black Caviar is such a national treasure, such a talking point that people who know nothing about racing want to offer an opinion. It is fair enough too - she is the people's horse.

There will be plenty of argument and plenty of debate in pubs and clubs over the next 50 years about the wonder mare who never lost. I am sure she will be fondly remembered.

Of course Black Caviar could not have won three Melbourne Cups like Makybe Diva or three Cox Plates like Kingston Town and, if you want to be silly, you could say she did not win a Grand National Steeplechase.

Kingston Town never ran in a Lightning Stakes and neither did Makybe Diva. Why? Because it was not their preferred distance and they could not have won. They stuck to what suited them.

Black Caviar stuck to what she was good at. She took on all comers and she never lost.

She is No.1.