Goodwood racecourse boss Adam Waterworth has spoken of his great hope that the two best racehorses in the world - unbeaten duo Frankel and Black Caviar - could do battle in the 2012 Sussex Stakes.
QIPCO and Goodwood have revealed they are bidding to stage the year’s most eagerly-anticipated clash between the two unbeaten stars of international flat racing.
With a total of 28 victories from 28 runs between them, Frankel and Black Caviar are officially the two highest-rated horses in the world.
In 2011 Frankel established himself as the champion in Europe with a series of scintillating performances. Meanwhile, in an unbeaten run stretching a remarkable 19 races, Black Caviar is the darling of Australian racing who is due to be campaigned in Europe this summer.
Sponsors QIPCO Holding have offered to increase the prize money for the QIPCO Sussex Stakes to £1m should both Black Caviar and Frankel line up for the prestigious Group One mile race on Wednesday, August 1, day two of Glorious. The prize fund is currently £300,000.
Sheikh Fahad Al Thani has been instrumental in the efforts to make this mouth-watering clash happen. Together with his brothers, Sheikh Fahad oversees the running of QIPCO Holding.
His bloodstock interests include the stallion, Makfi, while through Pearl Bloodstock Sheikh Fahad owns over fifty horses in training, including 2011 Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden.
Mindful of the fact that the QIPCO Sussex Stakes represents arguably the best opportunity for Frankel and Black Caviar to face each other during the forthcoming season, this generous sporting gesture has been offered to stimulate even greater interest in the prospective contest.
With a series of astounding performances between them attracting worldwide acclaim, the opportunity to stage the race in which Frankel and Black Caviar do battle is an extremely exciting prospect for Waterworth, Managing Director of Goodwood Racecourse.
He said: “In 2011, we witnessed the ‘Duel on the Downs’ between Frankel and Canford Cliffs, which generated a huge amount of publicity and was a great success for us and QIPCO.
“A meeting between Frankel and Black Caviar in the QIPCO Sussex Stakes at this year’s Glorious Goodwood Festival would be the international racing event of the year, and we are very grateful to Sheikh Fahad and QIPCO for their commitment which may make it a reality.”
Sheikh Fahad said: “In their respective home countries, Frankel and Black Caviar have ignited levels of public interest matched only by true champions of the past. The sport is blessed to have two such outstanding horses competing at the same time and consequently we felt it would be remiss not to make every effort to try to bring about the race everyone wants to see.
“The Sussex Stakes is arguably the only realistic chance of the two horses meeting, and we are delighted to make the gesture of increasing the prize fund to £1m as an incentive to the connections of both horses to run at Goodwood.”
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