A lot of questions need to be asked about the defeat of Oscietra in the New Year Plate at Flemington.

It was like a pressure cooker in the week leading into the race, every news service imaginable was cooking up the appearance of Black Caviar’s first foal, racing at Flemington.

That set the scene for the satchel slingers to spring into action, offering ridiculous odds about an unraced two year old on the strength of two jump outs, against unknown opposition.

Oscietra is a plain bay filly, nothing striking about he,r in the post parade you could pass her without a glance, not a robust filly like her mother.

She bounced out of the gate quickly and led until about the clock tower, it was likely from then on; she was not going to win

After the race one person was heard to say, “it took two pretty good horses to beat her” both were maidens and finished third at their last starts.

Black Caviar was the darling of the Australian turf; her record remains unchallenged in 25 straight wins in elite company.

Surely now it has to be accepted, our very best females that race on beyond three years rarely produce progeny within cooee of their own ability.

Helinge, the dam of Black Caviar, did not race and the second dam, Scandinavia, was not over used, although she did win four decent races.

Veterinary science cannot come up with any plausible answers at this time, maybe further research is required to find answers, we can only accept it must be put down to the strain of racing, it does not get any easier at the top level, we will have to wait until a more definite answer comes along.

The winner of the race, Limestone, was quite impressive, she was a deserving winner for Helmet, she could win again as that was just her second start.

Limestone