Formerly known simply as the Lightning Stakes, in 2014 the race was re-named in honour of the champion sprinter Black Caviar

BLACK CAVIAR (2011-13) brought up a hat-trick of victories in the Lightning Stakes, the most recent in track-record time. Undefeated in all 25 starts, Black Caviar thrilled crowds and packed grandstands as she reeled off displays of raw speed and awesome power, gracefully disposing of all opposition with absolute ease. She often recorded 200m sectionals in less than 10 seconds with seemingly no effort.

Black Caviar broke the record of consecutive wins in Australasia and holds the benchmark of 15 wins at Group 1 – nine of those in succession.

She was a phenomenon in our time and probably the greatest sprinter that the world has ever seen.

There have been a number of dual winners of this race including SKY HIGH (1961, 62), a winner of 26 stakes races from 1000m to 2500m including the Golden Slipper, Champagne Stakes, Victoria Derby (1960), Epsom Hcp, All Aged Stakes, Futurity Stakes, Caulfield Stakes, Mackinnon Stakes (1961), Chipping Norton Stakes, Linlithgow Stakes (1962) and two Ranvet Stakes (1962, 63).

WENONA GIRL (1963, 64) won 27 races including the ATC Sires’ Produce, Rosehill Guineas, Thousand Guineas, Flight Stakes (1960), ATC Australian Oaks (1961), two Ranvet Stakes (1961, 64), CF Orr Stakes (1962), Cantala Stakes, George Main Stakes (1963) and All Aged Stakes (1964).

MAYBE MAHAL (1977, 78) won the Cantala Stakes (1976), Doomben 10,000 (1977), Newmarket Hep and Doncaster Hep (1978).

RIVER ROUGH (1984, 85); SCHILLACI (1992, 93) also won the Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket Hep,The Galaxy (1992), George Ryder Stakes (1993) and two Futurity Stakes (1993, 95) and MAHOGANY (1995, 97).

TODMAN (1960) won 10 of 12 including the Golden Slipper and Champagne Stakes (1957); STORM QUEEN (1967) won the Golden Slipper, Champagne Stakes, Caulfield Guineas and the Cantala Stakes the previous year; DUAL CHOICE (1971): CENTURY (1974); THE JUDGE (1979); ZEDI- TAVE (1989); CHOISIR (2003); and FASTNET ROCK (2005).

TAKEOVER TARGET (2006) was famously bought for a measly $1250 by former Queanbeyan cab driver Joe Janiak.

The affable Janiak never could have guessed when he shook hands on his purchase that he was destined to also shake the hand of the Queen of England.

Joe Janiak trained the horse to 21 wins across the globe including the Newmarket Hep, King’s Stand Stakes, Sprinters Stakes (2006), Doomben 10,000 (2007) , Singapore International Sprint (2008), TJ Smith Stakes, and the Goodwood Stakes (2009) to rack up over $6,000,000 in prize money.

Other notable winners include MISS ANDRETTI (2007). APACHE CAT (2008) , and SCENIC BLAST (2009), who won the Newmarket Hep and the King’s Stand Stakes that year.