INEXPERIENCE COSTS PRINCE OF CAVIAR VICTORY
LUKE Nolen has blamed inexperience for Prince Of Caviar’s narrow defeat at Sandown Hillside yesterday after he looked certain to win at the 250m mark.
The son of unbeaten champion Black Caviar was finishing strongly at his second start, failing to grab the Darren Weir-trained Extra Brut by a quarter of a length.
Nolen said the Team Hawkes-trained Prince Of Caviar had a bright future.
“When the penny drops you’ll see a nice horse,” Nolen said.
“He’s got to improve physically and also mentally and when he nuts those things out he’ll be a nice progressive horse.”
Nolen rode Black Caviar to 22 of her 25 wins and was also successful on Black Caviar’s first foal, Oscietra, in her one win at Geelong Synthetic this time last year.
Nolen said he felt sure Prince Of Caviar would win as he was nursing him through the dip in the straight.
“I travelled like a winner. It’s a long straight here and it can be a daunting experience for an inexperienced horse,” he said.
“He got lost a couple of times when asked to lengthen off the bridle, he hasn’t been in that position often at home.
“It’s not the way the Hawkes camp bring their horses up, they learn on race day.”
Nolen said Prince Of Caviar had shown nice improvement from his debut at Sandown Lakeside in June, when he was slow to begin and ran on to finish fourth.
“He looked the winner for a good part of the straight but as he hadn’t been put under pressure a great deal in his career, when the race was there to be won he didn’t know how to.
“Today’s effort will go a long way to help rectify those problems.”