• Horse racing

Money will not lure Black Caviar to Goodwood

Frankel is currently rated as the best racehorse in the world © PA Photos

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Champion mare Black Caviar will not take on Frankel at Goodwood for the money, despite a potential purse of £1 million for the winner.

Sussex Stakes sponsors Qipco have made an offer to representatives of both horses to more than treble the prize money from £300,000 if both run at Goodwood, effectively engineering a showdown between the champion horses of both the northern and southern hemispheres for the first time.

But Peter Moody, the Melbourne-based trainer of the unbeaten Australian mare, says that money matters less than managing the burgeoning career of his sprinter.

Black Caviar is set to run in the UK this summer at Royal Ascot and Newmarket, but Moody remains coy on the prospect of extending their stay in Europe to face Frankel.

"It's certainly a great initiative from the sponsors and Goodwood and it's certainly something we will consider, but this mare has raced in races that we've thought that she was best suited to for her whole career. £1 million wouldn't sway us.

"If we thought she was in good form and she was ready to go there for the mile we'd strongly consider it, but otherwise it'd just be a benefit for Frankel."

Black Caviar is unbeaten in 19 races in her career to date but has made her name as a sprinter and is yet to run beyond seven furlongs.

"I've always thought strongly that she would handle 1600m (one mile), if not a mile and a quarter. The problem with our mare is she's such a hulk of a mare - she has a massive physique about her. Whether she would cope with the training for such distances would be of greater concern than actually running the races."

For racing fans, the prospect of a showdown between Black Caviar and Frankel, unbeaten in nine races and officially rated as the best racehorse in the world, is a mouth-watering prospect, but Moody does not believe staging the duel is vital to the legacy of either horse.

"I'm probably a bit like Henry [Sir Henry Cecil, trainer to Frankel] - it doesn't really worry me one way or the other, it's just someone's opinion. I'm very happy with our mare, I'm extremely proud of the record she's got.

"We've only raced in Australia in selected events as Frankel has in the northern hemisphere, and neither of us have probably been outside our comfort zone, but they're both extremely good horses."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.