BLACK Caviar has a big weight problem as she prepares to return to the racetrack and add to her unbeaten 22-race record.
The first lady of the turf is a staggering 70kg over her racing weight of 540kg - the average galloper weighs 470kg.To put it in perspective, the average Australian woman weighs 70kg.
As with all bulging waistlines, Black Caviar has had trouble getting into her gear.
We hear that she couldn't fit into her flashy compression suit when she returned to trainer Peter Moody's Caulfield stables last Monday week.
Not until she shed a few kilos with a run or two around the Tan.
Now the race is on for the superstar sprinter to become trim, taut and terrific again.
She enjoys the diet of any thoroughbred, though she does have a daily bonus of an egg in her meal.
Moody, being the perfect gentleman, preferred not to publicly discuss the weight of one of his favourite ladies.
Moody is hoping that she can return to the track in the race named in her honour, the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes over 1000m, at Flemington on February 16.
But he will have to pour the work into her to get her fit - but not so much as to aggravate the leg ailments that threaten her racing career.
He plans a gradual build-up of trackwork, plus a possible exhibition gallop at the Caulfield meeting on Australia Day.
This $6 million prizemoney winner won't have any drastic surgery or crash diets to hasten the slimming process.
Black Caviar is accustomed to running fast, but she won't fast.
Instead she simply will have to do the hard yards before, hopefully, she shows her broad beam once again to her rivals.
Read more on the Herald Sun.
