CAROLINE JONES, PRESENTER: Hello I’m Caroline Jones. Next Sunday morning in the wee small hours, tens of thousands of Australians will set their alarms to watch a horse race. The unbeaten Black Caviar will take on Europe’s best at Royal Ascot, before the Queen. It’s a success story in which many have played a part, and that becomes clear when you go back to how it all started. Tonight on Australian Story, the making of Black Caviar...

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: This is the dream of every breeder whoever conjured together the bloodlines and produced a foal. It can take years for a horses career for it fully to reveal what it’s capable of. There are no guarantees; you cross your fingers and hope. The reason the industry wakes before everybody else, every morning of the year, is the promise of a Black Caviar. It’s the wish of anybody who’s ever been to a yearling sale and put their hand up for a bid. And it’s the challenge for every trainer who’s ever let a juvenile rip into the wind for the first time at full gallop. Black Caviar has taken Australian racing back in time to its glory days, and that was never more apparent than her final two runs on home soil. All of Adelaide turned out with this sense of expectation; this sense of formality but this sense of celebration in it. It was truly something to behold.

PETER MOODY, TRAINER: I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit more tentative today - you know, a world record attempt.

NEWS READER: The excitement surrounding the attempt at a 20th consecutive win is building...

RACE CALLERS: They're off! And the most anticipated race this century is underway! They’re on the home turn... the anticipation is starting to build... Black Caviar, she’s better than a perfect 10! 14 straight, 15 straight 16 straight, 17 straight, win number 18, Black Caviar 19 straight - she’s 20 out of 20!

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Racing has been part of Australian culture since the very formation of our society. There were thoroughbreds on the First Fleet, and the first racing meeting here officially was staged in 1810. For the unbroken lineage of champion race horses on these shores, none had ever produced the magical streak of twenty. And now Black Caviar goes back to the mother country; to the very heart of the sport.

DANNY POWER, RACING JOURNALIST: Royal Ascot’s one of the bucket list destinations for people in racing; a bit of Royal pop and ceremony, the Queen comes down the centre of the track in a carriage

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Later this week Black Caviar will contest the feature sprint of the royal meeting. It’s the Diamond Jubilee stakes. For history and prestige there’s nothing to match the Royal Ascot. She’ll come against the best sprinters in Europe. On all that we know - on her status as the best sprinter in the world and the best sprinter of all time - she should be winning this race.

DANNY POWER, RACING JOURNALIST: It will be emotional I think for even the Australians who will be sitting up late at night to watch Black Caviar win - hopefully win - and the beat the Poms at their own game, horseracing, at the most hallowed track in the world.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: She’ll be a name as strongly linked with racing as Phar Lap has always been.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: Since Phar Lap, there’s probably been a million horses born in Australia so you could probably safely say that Black Caviar’s one in a million.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: The synergy’s unmissable, and it is one of the most famous pieces of footage in an Australian archive, is Phar Lap being winched up on the ship as he heads over for his career-defining win in the Agua Caliente. And now we know that he never came back. It cost him his life, that trip. I’m sure in some ways, her trainer Peter Moody would prefer that she could race her whole life here and establish these records, but we have reached a moment where he has a world champion, and it’s time to go and confront and beat the world to forever enhance and protect her legacy.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: It’s just so exciting. Rick’s going to get a jacket made - a black jacket with salmon writing on the back which says, "I started it..."

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Rick Jamieson has reshaped the industry in Australia. He has bred the best horse of our lifetime; the best horse since Phar Lap.

DANNY POWER, RACING JOURNALIST: He has made his money out of racing but not out of horses. He’s Harry the Hirer.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: Well I own a hiring company - we do all the major hiring at the Melbourne Cup carnival, the Caulfield Cup carnival - and through that you know you get to know the horse people, and yeah, just slowly, slowly I got a bit of an interest.

DANNY POWER, RACING JOURNALIST: He’s an interesting character himself, chain smoker, wears his jeans, knock-about sort of character; but he’s always had a passion for breeding race horses .

RICK JAMIESON: I just wanted to breed a great horse if I could. You know, bred and race a Melbourne cup winner would have been my plan.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: Rick Jamieson hates the spotlight. He’ll hate the fact that I’m even saying his name on TV, you know, he hates the spotlight - but as I said to him you know there’s people out there want to know, they want to know the story. They’re intrigued by the Black Caviar story and they want to know everything to do with it. Rick and I met about twenty years ago. He decided that he was going to take this industry by the neck and try and reshape it, and I thought, "Oh here we go again, here’s another one." Well Rick would give you a list of horses that he’d selected on his theory, in the early days, and you’d get it and I’d want to throw it straight in the bin. And then I’d go around and look at these horses praying the next one is going to be a nice one.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: I started breeding fifteen years ago. I think it took probably ten years to learn, and I think the last five years we’ve taken a big jump forward.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: Every night, probably for twenty years he would study pedigrees; look at international catalogues and find out reasons why horses would run, and go back to six and seven and eight generations - and so he developed his own theory. I don’t think I can tell you what Rick Jamieson’s basic breeding theory is because I don’t know, and he wouldn’t tell me.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: Well, in 2005, I went to the Sydney Yearling Sale with my friend, Peter Ford. We looked around for a couple of mares; couldn’t find one. In frustration, I flew home to Melbourne. Peter continued to search and came up with an unnamed, unraced horse - rang me in Melbourne, I looked at the pedigree, and it was a must buy for us. And we went ahead and bought it.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: One of the other interested parties, he was on his way to Sydney to bid on her, and his plane got stuck in a holding pattern, as he tells me - and he said, "If I had have been here you wouldn’t have got it", so I suppose that’s just part of the things that happen you know; you get horses for a reason.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: So for the sum of $115,000, this big injury-prone, unraced mare is given the name Helsinge and she taken to the northern Victoria property of Rick Jamieson, and that’s the genesis of the Black Caviar story.

MEAGHAN STRICKLAND-WOOD, HORSE STUD MANAGER: This is Black Caviar’s mum, Helsinge. I do remember when this mare arrived because she was so impressive.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: From a horseman’s point of view, when you look at Helsinge, you just see a perfectly formed female horse. Not the most beautiful mare you could see, you know, but just had everything - it had a temperament, it had bone, it had conformation of quality, and really nicely balanced, and I thought, what a great brood mare prospect!

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: At the time, I thought she was a difficult mare to mate - and that can happen - and I spent, you know, a lot of time trying to make effective matings. We came up with the Bel Esprit as the best mating for her.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Bel Esprit was unfashionable, but he was absolutely gifted.

KEVIN SHEEDY, CO-OWNER, BEL ESPRIT: The story as it goes is nobody wanted it. It was left for sale after the auctions were over.

MARK LINDSAY, ELIZA PARK STUD: There’s a lot of luck in the Black Caviar story. Her father, Bel Esprit, being a nine thousand dollar yearling – the majority of cheap horses that are colts become a little bit difficult to handle, and a majority of those horses are castrated.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Bel Esprit was imperfect and that’s why he was cheap; but it was the intangible ability that he had. And he was a natural racehorse - that’s why he didn’t get gelded along the way, because he took to racing with such a verve.

KEVIN SHEEDY, CO-OWNER, BEL ESPRIT: Most people have never liked Bel Esprit’s legs. He had a very, very awkward running action, would be the nicest thing you could probably say, but it covered ground - and it covered ground with a great speed.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Bel Esprit was an instant hit in racing circles - not just because of his ability, but he was connected to sporting royalty. In his ownership was the legendary AFL coach Kevin Sheedy

KEVIN SHEEDY, CO-OWNER, BEL ESPRIT: We started a cult following, because, I mean, Bel Esprit hadn’t really been beaten in its first year, and when you see what happened with Black Caviar, obviously Black Caviar has gone onto magnificent success, but we had that will Bel Esprit for a while.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: So for a nine thousand dollar purchase to go on to be a leading sire, that’s a rags to riches tale of the turf.

MARK LINDSAY: The similarities between Black Caviar and what Bel Esprit has passed onto her is his masculinity and his strength. He’s got a great arse, a great hindquarter and a very good shoulder, and if you’re fortunate enough to see Black Caviar, she’s got an arse like a bus, and that phenomenal shoulder that Bel Esprit has as well - so you can see where all the power comes from.

MEAGHAN STRICKLAND-WOOD: This is a very special paddock. Back in 2006 at 5.20 in the morning, we had a very special foal in this very paddock, and it was Black Caviar.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Anyone might have owned Black Caviar, but it was leading trainer Peter Moody who had his hand up for $210,000 at the yearling sales.

PETER MOODY, TRAINER: The year I went to Melbourne premier sales, when I saw Black Caviar I instantly fell in love with her... I didn’t have a client in mind, but I quickly got on the phone and rang a couple...

PAM HAWKES, CO-OWNER: And I said, "We only want a fast one, so he took me at my word...

JANNEANE MADDEN, CO-OWNER: And made sure we had a fast one.

PETER MOODY, TRAINER: She just had a presence about her, an action about her; every time she took a stride certain parts of her body moves. It’s like walking down the beach and seeing certain parts of a someone's anatomy wiggle or that, and you can’t help yourself - you just have to turn around and have a look.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: To this day he doesn’t regret selling Black Caviar, or says he doesn’t - but he truly honestly is so happy for the people that own her. I would think he has great respect from his fellow breeders of being able to breed the best horse in the world. We keep telling each other – "We made the best horse in the world."

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: The preparation has been meticulous, Peter Moody had counted back from the date at Ascot: how fit did she need to be? And that meant a second run in Adelaide.

NEWSREADER: Black Caviar has arrived safely in Adelaide, prime to extend her unbeaten race record to 21 consecutive wins.

PETER MOODY, TRAINER: She’s in familiar territory now, she knows her way around, I’m very happy with her

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Race 21 had a special feel to it because this was her Australian farewell for the time being. The Goodwood was the softest win of her career - and just for a flick, maybe at about the 200 - where We’re Going to Rock, who ran second reached full momentum down the outside - and Nolan wouldn’t budge. He was carrying out his instructions to an absolute tee. And he looked from one to the other and thought, Does he know? Does he know this other horse is coming? That’s how cautious they were with her there, to have her ready for the arduous flight and then for the preparation in England, and wanted the softest possible win.

RACE CALLER: Black Caviar the equine super star of the world - and that’s 21 today!

LUKE NOLAN, JOCKEY: I’m not a punter I don’t worry about margins - as long as she bloody wins, that's all, I’m happy.

PETER MOODY, TRAINER: She put on a show for everyone. It’s never been about margins and records, she got the job done, so happy days.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: And in the aftermath the owners who, were a little... not quite taken aback, but curious as to why it was so soft - they were telling the story that Peter Moody had told them he’d told Nolan, "If you hit her, I’ll hit you when you get back."

VOX POP: I’ve been coming to the races since early 50’s, and a bookie for 46 years, and I remember her now, at least the equal of Vain, so probably the equal best sprinter I’ve ever seen.

DANNY POWER, RACING JOURNALIST: People compare Black Caviar to Phar Lap but it’s not – in the racing world we compare her to Vain.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: Well anybody who can remember Vain racing is just... I don’t think we’d seen anything since him until Black Caviar.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: In the late 60’s, Vain dominated sprint racing in Australia. For decades no-one would allow another horse to be put on the same pedestal as Vain until now - and the lovely part of the story is there is a blood connection between Vain and Black Caviar.

DANNY POWER, RACING JOURNALIST: The appearance of Vain in Black Caviar’s pedigree on both sides is probably the reason, I believe, that she is so fast.

TIM JOHNSON, THOROUGHBRED BREEDER: In layman’s terms on her father’s side Vain is the great grandfather, and then on the mother’s side Vain is the great great grandfather - so we’re going back a way, but in thoroughbred breeding it’s all relatively close. Vain, who was bred by my grandfather from day one, was a horse that had a lot of media attention - cause of his speed, his natural starting ability, he’d just get out there and fly. Vain was the first horse my grandfather didn’t have castrated and kept him as a stallion. He saw something in him that he’d been obviously waiting for a long time to see because all the previous relations had all been gelded.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: So this is where you see things reinforcing through the generations, and Australia’s great sprinter begot Australia’s greatest sprinter.

MARK LINDSAY, ELIZA PARK STUD: Breeding racehorses is an absolute gamble. There’s so many factors that are required to get a horse to the track, and you need luck 100 per cent to go your way. The breeder of Black Caviar, Rick Jamieson, is effectively living the dream right now.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Black Caviar’s greatness has now spread from those directly involved with her. Those who have been blessed to have a share, to train, to ride, to those who have been involved with her breeding - and any horse with a connection to Black Caviar will be instantly recognisable I think to the generations that follow.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: Meaghan is the horse manager, if you like; she runs all of the horses on the farm. She is the most wonderful person; she dedicates every waking moment to the horses. This is the yearling half-brother to Black Caviar; he’s by Redoutes Choice, and yeah, we think he’s going to be a racehorse. Look, he's got a hold of me! He’s cheeky.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: So Rick has actually relented; he says, "It’s not the breeding it’s the mare you bought me."

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: Helsinge, I think, is turning into a special mare. She... each of her foals, and she’s had five now, she stamps them all. It’s like they come out of a mould.

KEVIN SHEEDY, CO-OWNER, BEL ESPRIT: Helsinge has been a great mare and she stands on her own since the history of what happened in the last couple of years, because she’s produced some beautiful horses and they've been sold at the best price you could ever get.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Thoroughbred brood mares produce one foal a year. Helsinge’s third foal went on to races ‘All Too Hard’. By the time he hit the yearling sales Black Caviar had won her first 11 starts. He went for more than a million dollars.

RACE CALLER: All Too Hard, Black Caviar’s little brother, in gate seven. Racing in the sires.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: The focus on the family at that point was enormous. We had Black Caviar doing all the wonderful things she was doing, and then of course, out of nowhere came All Too Hard.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: This year, All Too hard was the revelation. He came out and won his first three races in dominant style before being narrowly beaten at his fourth start.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: So the focus really came back down onto the family and onto the mare, and of course the next foal.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: The Easter sales in Sydney would boast to sell the best horse flesh on the Australian calendar, and in Lot 200 they had that: Helsinge’s next foal, the one to follow All Too Hard.

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: Rick just said, "Stick close, I need to get through this; you won’t believe how nervous I am."

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: After awhile you just get a little numb; I’ll just wait and see I think, I think the market will take care of it.

AUCTIONEER: Ladies and gentlemen I doubt there’s anything I can say that will enhance the pedigree of the filly that’s just come in the ring in front of us...

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: It was as if the last diamond on earth was up for grabs, and people just had to have it at any price.

AUCTIONEER: We’ve had buyers interested from all over the world with interest in buying her, obviously because she’s so well related - a half sister to world champion Black Caviar, and a very, very promising racehorse, All Too Hard.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: What fuelled the incredible sale of the horse was Rick Jamieson’s promise, his vow, that this was the last time a filly from Helsinge would be offered for sale. You can’t buy Black Caviar. If you want a piece of this legacy, of this dynasty, here it is: and she went for $2.6 million.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: Well as the numbers were going up; I think once it passed the reserve it really was a blur to me you know I wasn’t... I wasn’t focussed on the numbers, I was probably in a happy space.

MEAGHAN STRICKLAND-WOOD: Rick wanted to thank everyone involved; he had a bit of a thank you speech I think he wanted to give, and yeah, that was the highlight for me, that was amazing...

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: It was a bit of an outpouring I suppose. It was, after the sale I think the, the stress of the lead into the sales was enormous, and as much as I carried it, on the farm Meaghan carried it.

MEAGHAN STRICKLAND-WOOD: It was quite emotional for all of us, I think. It was a relief, the biggest relief just to have her sold and all in one piece, it was good.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: For me the challenge now, I want to do it again. We sent Helsinge back to Bel Esprit again this year, and successfully she’s in foal. We had her scanned and she’s carrying a filly, so that’ll be a full sister to Black Caviar, so that’s fairly exciting.

MEAGHAN STRICKLAND-WOOD: She is having a pregnancy test today so we can make sure everything's ticking along normally. We probably monitor her pregnancy closer than anyone else, just because, obviously, it’s a pretty big deal if things went pear-shaped. So she gets monitored with ultrasound routinely, along with a few other choice mares. It’s always a relief when we check her and everything is alive and normal; it’s just a month by month basis, so that’s all good.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: Rick Jamieson has accomplished the dream. He has bred a world champion thoroughbred, and he's got the beginnings of racehorse dynasty. Now the story needs a conclusion. Helsinge’s most famous foal Black Caviar, has made the 30 hour trip to London. She flew first class clad in a tailor-made compression suit. So everything that can be done has been done, and now this moment of destiny draws near.

RICK JAMIESON, BREEDER: I’ll be there for the Ascot Week and of course whenever Black Caviar runs, I get terribly nervous. I know now the couple days leading into, into Ascot, I will be a bit of wreck. I don’t sleep and I don’t eat and, um, my friends don’t talk to me ‘cause they know I won’t talk to them, and, when she races and she wins, then I’m right again. But it does... it takes a lot from me.

MEAGHAN STRICKLAND-WOOD: We’ve got to stay back and look after the horses, so we can’t go. We’re getting a bunch of friends together and we’re going to have a Black Caviar slumber party here at the farm! So that we can watch the race and, sort of, be as close to the action as we can

PETER FORD, EQUINE ADVISOR: I’ll be right where I am probably just over there on the couch watching that TVN hoping like hell that she acquits herself in the manner that we all think she will.

GERARD WHATELEY, BLACK CAVIAR BIOGRAPHER: For me, Black Caviar is now protected against defeat. None of this can be erased - this turning back of time, the drawing of tens of thousands of people to racetracks to see one particular horse. The streak - twenty one lives forever whether there’s a defeat at the end of it or not; it is the stretch within the history of Australian racing; it is a world landmark that can’t be taken away. The idea of perfection is cherished it is sought. If she could live up to that as well, that’s immortality, but nothing not defeat from here would reduce the story that we’ve lived through.

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Black Caviar is reported to have travelled well and has resumed her training routine in England.

Her connections say they will decide her future after the Royal Ascot race next weekend.