Black Caviar – Definitely not a Maybe

Black Caviar will equal a modern-day record if she wins the G1 VRC Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on Saturday.  The Peter Moody-trained superstar will lump 58kg down the straight six and the only other mare to win the Newmarket as top-weight was Maybe Mahal who carried 56.5kg in 1978.

Maybe Mahal (Maybe Lad) had been a Group 1 winner of the 1976 VRC Craven A Stakes & VRC George Adams Hcp, 1977 VRC Lightning Stakes & BATC Doomben 10,000 and 1978 VRC Lightning Stakes before the Newmarket.

The Bart Cummings trained mare gave top-drawer sprinter Always Welcome 4kg and a beating in the 1978 Newmarket and then went on to claim the last of her seven Group 1 victories in the Doncaster Hcp.

Maybe Mahal was nowhere near as potent at stud with just two winners from just eight foals in 14 years at stud.  Her best performer was LR Warwick Farm Spring Cup winner Bellomahal (Bellotto).

Her first foal Must Be Mahal (Raffindale) was represented by the stakes winners Grey Man (Family of Man) and Tolo Harbour (Success Express).

Bred and raced by Doug Reid from his St Johns Lane Stud at Sunbury, Maybe Mahal had been pensioned two years before she died in April 1995.