Although the potentially ATG sprinter Black Caviar is rarely sighted between races, doing most of her work in the dark at Caulfield, elsewhere there is a clamour to climb on her bandwagon.

Just after the sun came up at Flemington this morning, legendary trainer Bart Cummings, there to watch his stayer Precedence prepare for Saturday’s Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m), obliged the media by buying into the “how good is she?” debate on the Peter Moody-trained Black Caviar, long odds-on favourite for the other million-dollar race on Saturday, the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m).

Cummings, winner of eight Newmarkets, including the 1978 running with Maybe Mahal, doesn’t have an entrant this year. “If you did have a runner you’d be hard put to beat her,” he said of Black Caviar. “She’s very good.

“Maybe Mahal was very good, I think it won six or seven Group 1s … I’ve had a lot of good ones, this one (Black Caviar) I think is equal to the best we’ve had.”

Flemington trainer Danny O’Brien, whose Shamrocker won last Saturday’s Group 1, the Australian Guineas (1600m), will take on the unbeaten Black Caviar this Saturday with his star sprinting colt Star Witness, despite originally planning to dodge her.

Star Witness (ch c 3,  Starcraft (NZ)-Leone Chiara, by Lion Hunter), a dual Group 1 winner – as is Black Caviar (b m 4, Bel Esprit-Helsinge, by Desert Sun (GB)) – was the star worker at Flemington, his straight-track workout reminding watchers of a jump-out five days before he won the G1 Coolmore Stakes, also 1200m, in the spring.

Today, Star Witness worked with stablemate Keano from the 1200 metres on the outside of the straight. He whooshed past Keano inside the 300 metres.

He was timed to run 47.6 seconds for the last 800, with the final 400 in a low-flying 21.71 – in the spring he impressively tracked Hay List, whose boom then just about matched Black Caviar, with the winner’s last 800 timed at 45.15 and 400 at 21.5. Star Witness was ridden by Dwayne Dunn, but Ben Melham will have the ride on Saturday.

Star Witness thrashed his age group in the Coolmore and then beat the rest home when thrashed by Black Caviar in the Patinack Farm Classic (wfa, 1200m) seven days later.

O’Brien said Star Witness really enjoyed the straight. “He stretched out beautifully his last two furlongs and looked to have plenty left on the line.

“He’ll have no excuses on Saturday; he’ll turn up as good as we can prepare him. Obviously he’ll have to be (at his best) with the enormity of the challenge he’s got.

I think she’s as good a mare as I’ve ever seen … she doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses.

“This is a very, very good colt, particularly straight course sprinting. The handicapper has given us a chance (Black Caviar has 58kg, Star Witness 53kg), but we’re certainly not going in there full of confidence that we can beat her.

“Look, I would back him to have won any of the past 10 Newmarkets, but he’s going into one that’s got a freak in it.”

Paul Snowden, who runs trainer Peter Snowden’s Melbourne stable, has Beaded (br m 5, Lonhro-Subtle, by Night Shift (USA)) in the Newmarket. With Mark Zahra up, she shaded Obsequious (Kerrin McEvoy) in a straight 1000-metre gallop in 1:07.1, the final 400 in 22.5. McEvoy will ride Beaded in the Newmarket.

Snowden said Beaded was in terrific order, but she had to take on The Great One on Saturday.

Could she beat her? “I’d say no … we’ll be fighting out for second for third.”

Hay List (b or br g 5, Statue Of Liberty (USA)-Sing Hallelujah, by Is It True (USA)), thrashed by Black Caviar in the Patinack (when he went into the race with niggling injuries) and in the G1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) last month, is in that minor fight, too.

Apparently everyone is conceding the major prize, as TAB Sportsbet’s all-in market for the Newmarket emphasises:

$1.25 Black Caviar

$12 Hay List

$18 Star Witness

$21 Response

$26 Beaded, Hinchinbrook, Eagle Falls

The field and barrier draw will be announced tomorrow.

Trainer Patrick Shaw, who said he’d like to take on our Black Caviar with his Singapore champion Rocket Man to see if the Melbourne mare really was the world’s best sprinter and not just a stop-at-home champion, has his sprinter going like a rocket.

Rocket Man, being prepared for the $2 million Golden Shaheen (1200m) on the artificial Tapeta track on World Cup night at Meydan in Dubai on March 26, romped home on the Polytrack at Kranji, Singapore in the $125,000 RDA Cup (1200m) yesterday.

Starting at $5.30 favourite (for a $5 investment, odds of about 1-17 “in the old” – Black Caviar, at this stage is about 1-3 to win the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on Saturday), Rocket Man won by almost six lengths from Capablanca with Noble Manor two lengths away third, cruising home in 1 min 10.70 secs.

Shaw said Rocket Man would leave for Dubai on March 19 in a bid to go one better than last year’s (probably unlucky) second to American Kinsale King.

Rocket Man (b g 5, Viscount-Macrosa (NZ), by Mr McGinty (NZ)) is unbeaten in 12 starts against domestic opponents in Singapore, and he dead-heated in a Group 2 in Hong Kong last year. His four defeats (all close-up seconds) have been at international Group 1 level.

The unbeaten Black Caviar will be going for her 10th win (third at Group 1) when she races as a long odds-on favourite in the $1 million Group 1 Newmarket. The race pencilled in as the first possible clash between Black Caviar (b m 4, Bel Esprit-Helsinge, by Desert Sun (GB)) and Rocket Man will be the Patinack Farm Classic (1200m) at Flemington during the Melbourne Cup carnival in November.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s two top jockeys, Australian Vlad Duric and Brazilian Joao Moreira have begun careless riding suspensions – Duric (25 wins) will miss five meetings and return on March 27; Moreira, out for six meetings, will be back on April 1.

In Hong Kong, Beauty Flash, another preparing for Dubai, yesterday made it a hat-trick of Group 1s when he won the $HK6 million (about $760,000 ) Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup  (1400m).

Melbourne Cup winner Gerald Mosse (Americain, 2010) rode Beauty Flash and will have the mount in the $5 million Group 1 Dubai Duty Free (1777m), a leg of the Asian Mile Series, at Meydan.

The Tony Cruz-trained Beauty Flash (ch g 5, Golan (IRE)-Wychwood Rose (NZ), by Volksraad (NZ)) beat Sunny King (Olivier Doleuze) and hot favourite Lucky Nine (Brett Prebble), prompting Mosse to say: “He’s a superstar.”

Prebble, beaten on another well-fancied horse at the weekend – Playing God in the $750,000 Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday – didn’t come away empty-handed from the Sha Tin meeting. He had a double, including the heavily backed Familists ($18 in to $8.50), in the last – Familists (b or br g 4, Hussonet (USA)-Sunday Valentine, by Sunday Silence (USA)), a $1.2 million yearling, had two wins as Hus Der Lieften in Sydney when trained by Gerald Ryan.

Melbourne Cup winning trainer David Hall (Makybe Diva, 2003) trains Familists, who has won one from four in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s top jockey Douglas Whyte also had a Sha Tin double (Goodview Successor and Rich Unicorn) after a “southern hemisphere Saturday”. At Ellerslie in New Zealand he was unplaced on Wisecrack behind Jimmy Choux in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby (2400m), but had a consolation win on Treasure Hunter in a support 2100m race.

Whyte leads Prebble 57-42 in the jockeys’ premiership.

Jimmy Choux (b c 3, Thorn Park-Cierzo (NZ), by Centaine) is expected to start in the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m) at Randwick next month. Trained by John Bary, Jimmy Choux has won nine of 16, including two Group 1s, three Group 2s and two Group 3s, ridden in all by Jonathan Riddell, who combines flat and jumps riding.

Star New Zealand filly We Can Say It Now has been retired after her disappointing 14^th behind Shamrocker in today’s Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.

The filly was heavily backed to start the $4.80 favourite, but weakened badly after tracking the leaders in third place until the turn.

Hong Kong-based owner Paul Makin made the decision in a phone call to co-trainer Bjorn Baker soon after the filly was vetted following the race.

“Paul said to retire her, and I told him it was a privilege to train her,” Baker said.

“Craig (jockey Craig Williams) said she was beaten at the 600 metres. Apart from a slow recovery – she was still blowing a half an hour after the race – the vets can find nothing wrong with her.

“That’s racing, the highs and the lows,” said Baker, reflecting on the stable’s great success in the spring with the colt Lion Tamer winning the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m, Flemington).

Baker added that We Can Say It Now had worked brilliantly leading into the race. In fact, the filly and the winner Shamrocker teamed together for a serious work-out at Flemington on Tuesday morning – We Can Say It Now was stabled with Shamrocker’s trainer Danny O’Brien at Flemington.

“She galloped with Shamrocker and carried 10kg more and beat her easily. I really expected her to win today,” he said.

Baker’s father, and co-trainer, Murray Baker said that Makin has made the right call. “There is obviously something not right with her, so there is no purpose in heading to Sydney. She has won two Group 1 races, she’s got nothing to prove,” he said.

We Can Say It Now is bred by Makin from a mating of his two top gallopers, Starcraft (NZ) and We Can’t Say That (NZ) (by Generous (GB). Makin dearly wanted to win the Australian Guineas to avenge the defeat of Starcraft by Reset in 2004.

Bjorn Baker said Makin told him that Darley’s stallion Dubawi (by Dubai Millennium) was the likely mating for We Can Say It Now if the prized young stallion shuttles to Australian in the 2011 spring.

Two Irish jockeys who rode in the Australia-Ireland jumps series in Victoria and South Australia almost six years ago have been licensed to ride in the new season that begins at Warrnambool on April 4 amid renewed optimism and a future secured for at least three seasons.

And other jockeys are expected come to both states, a result of concern over a shortage of riders here and of the effect the recession in Ireland is having on jobs there.

The 2005 visitors, Bobby Molloy and Tom Ryan, were licensed by Racing Victoria after riding in hurdle trials at Cranbourne on Tuesday overseen by steward Rob Montgomery.

The Irish recruitment is supported by leading trainer Eric Musgrove, but top jockey Steve Pateman regards it a over-reaction.

Musgrove, who has given work to Molloy, said that with the retirement of Craig Durden, Brett Scott, Adam Trinder, Brian Constable and Tommy Allanson, and probably Bill Williams, there was a shortage of jumps jockeys.

“We are definitely in need of more riders,” he said. “I think three are coming to Victoria and three to Adelaide. They’re all experienced riders and it’s just something we need for it to flourish.”

The website irishracing.com named Johnny Allen, Stephen Gray, Donal MacAuley, Ken Whelan and Eddie Power as others intending to ride in Australia.

Pateman said trainers were panicking a bit. “Yes, three have retired – (Adam) Trinder, ‘Durds’ and ‘Scotty’ – but then another three will step up. It’s the way it always is,” he said.

“I just hope the trainers support the Aussie boys because they’ve been through a lot the last three years. They deserve opportunity more than someone just hopping over.”

Molloy, 24, who has a one-year working visa, said he should have come earlier.

“I was here in 2005, that was my only trip,” he said of riding winners in the Ireland-Australia series. “Things are quiet (in racing) at home. The recession has affected a lot and they’re pulling out of horses.

“I came over at the end of January. I could have come over a year or two ago, I haven’t been doing much,” he said, adding his only decent winner of late had been on a novice hurdler, Shamiran, at the big Punchestown festival last November.

Another Irishman riding here, Martin Kelly (three years in Australia), put Molloy on to Musgrove, who offered him a job in the stables and riding work and, without guarantees, riding in races – Arron Lynch, Kelly and Pateman will have first dibs on Musgrove’s horses.

Molloy said Ryan, who came out before Christmas, is working at Flemington.

Photo: Bobby Molloy, left, and Tom Ryan on Eric Musgrove-trained hurdlers Ruby Beads and Bologna.

If Rancher and Bel Esprit are Maseratis, Zeditave a muscle-car Monaro and Redoute’s Choice a Rolls-Royce, then what is the latest young galloping star, Sepoy?

This uncomplicated, uninspiring-looking little chestnut is a T-model Ford. Crank him up and away he goes.

On Saturday, the unbeaten Sepoy won the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m, Caulfield) by a record margin of almost five lengths, and he ran the distance in 1min 8.55secs, the second fastest in history – Hurricane Sky’s 1.08.1 was regarded as a world record for a 2YO on turf when he won in 1994.

There was nothing jaw-dropping about Sepoy when he walked into the parade ring at Caulfield; no gasps from the crowd as he nonchalantly went about his paces, it was more like, “Oh, that’s him.” He’s neat little horse with an easy movement, nice head and a big rear end; but, after a quick summation, you are on to the next horse.

However, Sepoy has all that it takes to be a great two-year-old – push-button speed; tremendous economical action; relaxed, unfazed temperament; and stamina – especially the ability to do the work both ends of a race as he did in the Blue Diamond Stakes.

Darley Australia general manager Henry Plumptre said that Sepoy has been an athletic horse from the time he was born. “He was always a very good walking horse, even though he wasn’t a big horse,” he said.

The fact that Sepoy has emerged, unbeaten in four starts, as the best two-year-old to race in Australia under Sheikh Mohammed’s maroon and white livery, is a lesson in the mysteries and vagaries of thoroughbred horse racing.

The little colt is a product of two “rejects”, sire and dam. His sire Elusive Quality (USA) was banished from Australia after covering the last of six seasons in 2008. He arrived in Australian in 2003 with much fanfare and few breeders didn’t fall in love with him as he’s a magnificent looking stallion.

Although Elusive Quality’s books were limited in those early seasons – he covered 83, 88 and 84 mares in his first three seasons – he received a big boost internationally when his star colt Smarty Jones emerged in 2004 to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Camarilla, a close relation to Sepoy – she is a daughter of Camarena, a sister to his dam Watchful – came from Elusive Quality’s first crop. The big filly won the 2007 Group 1 AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes, but she and Sepoy are Elusive Quality’s only southern hemisphere Group 1 winners from a disappointing result of only nine Stakes winners.

Elusive Quality lost the faith of trainers, who regarded his progeny as soft-boned horses that needed a long time to strengthen to be racehorses and who didn’t handle the rigours of the Australian training regime – the opposite to the precocious Sepoy. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, as Elusive Quality the racehorse didn’t hit his straps until he was four.

Sepoy comes from Elusive Quality’s biggest season of 173 mares in 2007 – the equine influenza year – which came about through necessity. That year, Elusive Quality stood for a fee of $137,500, and many other breeders used him. Last season those breeders took a big knock when the stallion’s yearlings were relatively unwanted at the sales – Elusive Quality’s papers were stamped for a future back in North America where he has had greater success.

Plumptre said Darley has 48 two-year-olds in training this season. “He was the only decent stallion we could use that year,” he said, acknowledging that Elusive Quality’s career has been resurrected by chance, although there are no plans at this stage to return him to Australia.

Watchful, bred by Darley, was originally named Swingin’ Miss, but her name was changed before she raced. She won a trial in 2004 at Warwick Farm, but was retired to stud after finishing third at Randwick in April 2004. She was first mated to Reset in 2005 to produce a colt, named Twitcher, who is unraced. In 2007, she produced a brother to Sepoy, Cautious Time, a bay, who is a maiden after six starts and is racing around the Muswellbrook and Scone district.

Darley cashed in Watchful, in foal to Dubai Destination (USA), at the 2009 Inglis Easter Broodmare Sale for $55,000. It has been a windfall for her new owner, His Excellency Nassar Lootah’s Emirates Park Stud, which has kept the Dubai Destination colt, now a yearling. After sending Watchful to its own stallion Eavesdropper (by Kingmambo (USA)) in 2009 for a missed result, Emirates Park put her in foal last spring to Darley’s exciting young stallion Domesday (by Red Ransom (USA)).

There is much conjecture as to the value of Sepoy as a stallion, which is irrelevant as Darley won’t sell him. The biggest conjecture is whether Australian breeders will warm to, or risk, a son of Elusive Quality, remembering that Elusive Quality’s best son, Smarty Jones, who retired with much fanfare, has been a stud flop. Smarty Jones stood at Three Chimneys Farm, Kentucky from 2006 to 2010. He is currently covering a book at Ghost Ridge Stud, Pennsylvania, but he will shuttle to the southern hemisphere later this year to Uruguay.

Sepoy’s first mission is the Golden Slipper in early April. He is aiming to be the fifth 2YO to win the Blue Diamond-Golden Slipper double, joining Courtza (1989), Bounding Sway (1986), Manikato (1978) and John’s Hope (1972). It’s no easy feat, and only Manikato has been able to take the double and return in the spring to win the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas.

It’s highly unlikely that Sepoy will be any better as a 3YO than he is now. This is his time. Others will catch up to him, so I suspect that his future is in the northern hemisphere where his sire-line will be appreciated by breeders, especially if he can win a Group 1 race in Europe or North America.

The Thoroughbred’s exclusive Group 1 speed maps and previews for Caulfield on Saturday:

The races featured are the Futurity Stakes (race 5), Oakleigh Plate (race 6) and the Blue Diamond Stakes (race seven)

Danny Power’s full preview (including detailed comments on all runners), markets, tips and recommended betting play available courtesy of BETFAIR:

FUTURITY STAKES

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TEMPO – MODERATE

The tactics of Nash Rawiller on More Joyous is the key to the tempo.

More Joyous has “sprinter-like” gate speed if asked, so Rawiller has the option of kicking through from barrier one to lead, and from there he can dictate the tempo of the race.

I doubt Rawiller will want to risk More Joyous sitting behind the pace – if he does, then he will have Doubtful Jack as the horse to follow. I doubt Doubtful Jack will charge along in front, so I am confident this race will bit a sit-sprint affair. I also expect King Mufhasa will roll forward – he is another option to lead.

That will make it harder for Whobegotyou (pictured), who from barrier 10 will go back and will be giving the leaders five or six lengths start from the 500m.

OAKLEIGH PLATE

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TEMPO – GOOD/FAST

There is a heap of competitive speed in the Oakleigh Plate, as there should be in a handicap with 18 starters.

The very slick Undeniably should pounce on the fence in front from barrier 3, while Solar Charged (barrier 1) will kick up and Avenue (11) and Faster Son (17) will come across from wide out.

Faster Son, with blinkers on, is the horse that will be charging, and I see him ensuring that the pace won’t slacken.

I can see this race being set up for the late-closing sprinters such as Catapulted, Eagle Falls and Set For Fame.

BLUE DIAMOND STAKES

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TEMPO – MODERATE

Not a lot of competitive speed here. The Sydney filly Anevay is the natural leader, and I don’t see that any other horse will contest it with her.

This should allow Sepoy to kick through to be on the pace from barrier five. Jockey Kerrin McEvoy has the option of holding his place without cover, or to ease and take a trail on Metonymy, drawn on his outside, who also will push forward. I doubt McEvoy will want to sit on an “outsider” when he has a good, in-form speedy filly in Anevay to tow him into the race.

This lack of pressure up front will make it tough for horses that settle back in the field, particularly Grand Britannia and Delago’s Lad, the best of the run-on horses.

Look for Atomic, who raced back at his winning debut at Sandown, and Mick Price’s promising filly Holdontoyahorse, also a back runner in her three starts, to be ridden closer over this 1200-metre distance.

Yesterday this column told of Singapore-based trainer Patrick Shaw suggesting that Black Caviar had to race international opponents, preferably overseas – including his brilliant Rocket Man – to justify the “greatest thing since sliced bread” claims heaped on her in Melbourne and almost all points north, south, east and west.

Well, today, we balance the ledger by reporting that an international observer of some repute has come out strongly on the side of “what you see is what you rate” with Black Caviar, trained by Peter Moody at Caulfield and, so far, presented only on her own dunghill and those just across town, Flemington and Moonee Valley.

Alan ‘Hats’ Aitken, the straight-talking Australian racing expert based in Hong Kong but conversant with the best around the world, produced this opinion piece in the South China Morning Post – the brackets, by the way, are mine:

“We have spoken about the past practices of the international handicappers that seemed to limit Australia’s Black Caviar to a (world best sprinter) 123 rating in the international assessments and the unbeaten sprinter made a mockery of the situation again when she returned to racing last Saturday.

“Very few 1000m Group 1s have been won as easily as she won the Lightning Stakes (at Flemington), the first leg of the new Global Sprint Challenge series for 2011.

“It’s in the nature of straight, short-course races in particular that it is not easy to put up big margins, but she could have won by six or seven lengths if asked at all, instead of being eased down to just over three lengths.

If the decision was taken to push her international rating to 130 (as Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper and world ratings panel member Greg Carpenter offered) there would be few dissenters. She has that (former Hong Kong superstar sprinter) Silent Witness look of inevitability about her each time she races, winning without breaking into a sweat. She has been out nine times for nine wins and each one seems more facile than the one before.

“But there she sits on 123 and shaping as a ready test of the silly corner into which the classifications people have painted themselves by their under-assessments of the likes of (Hong Kong’s present star sprinter) Sacred Kingdom and Silent Witness in past years at a 123-point peak.

We note the Racing Post newspaper in the UK – an unabashed fan of Black Caviar for some time – has also asked what a sprinter has to do to be rated 130, when it seems to happen every year that the top middle-distance horse in Europe is somewhere in the mid-130s in the classifications.

Whether she travels overseas or not this year – and we sincerely hope she is here (for the Cathay Pacific Sprint, 1200m, at Sha Tin) on international day in December – the Peter Moody-trained mare can do a favour for all the good sprinters to come by forcing the handicappers to break through the glass ceiling that seems to limit only the classification figures of short-course champions.”

Hats off to ‘Hats’.

Photo: Sacred Kingdom (Gerald Mosse) after winning at Sha Tin.