Does Black Caviar deserve to be ranked alongside Australia's greatest racehorse Phar Lap?It's an impossible question to compare horses of different eras but not one of the 20,134 racegoers who turned up from all parts of the country to witness the wonder mare record her 13th consecutive win in Saturday's Group One BTC Cup at Doomben would disagree.Never before in Queensland racing history has a winning jockey taken 45 minutes to get back to the jockeys' room after a big race.But that was the cas

Does Black Caviar deserve to be ranked alongside Australia's greatest racehorse Phar Lap?

It's an impossible question to compare horses of different eras but not one of the 20,134 racegoers who turned up from all parts of the country to witness the wonder mare record her 13th consecutive win in Saturday's Group One BTC Cup at Doomben would disagree.

Never before in Queensland racing history has a winning jockey taken 45 minutes to get back to the jockeys' room after a big race.

But that was the case with Luke Nolen, the champion mare's rider.

After completing the mandatory post race interviews, Nolen said he felt like a rock star as he signed hundreds of autographs for the champion's adoring fans.

He was still signing autographs as the next race was being run before being escorted by security guards back to the jockeys' room.

There hadn't been a bigger crowd at Doomben to watch a horse since Gunsynd's farewell in 1973 when the official figure was 18,000.

Doomben did host a crowd of 29,000 plus eight years ago on Melbourne Cup day, the first of Makybe Diva's three historic victories when officials catered for the massive attendance on the Doomben infield.

Phar Lap became the country's national hero during the depression years when everyone turned to sport to find something good in their lives.

Phar Lap never let them down then and so far Black Caviar is doing the same.

The situation may be different but there are some similarities for Queenslanders who have recently come through one of the worst flood disasters in memory.

The question now is whether Nolen will get the chance to be legged up again on the Black Caviar express in the Group One Doomben 10,000 on Saturday.

If the mare pulls up well following the BTC Cup she'll be there but trainer Peter Moody plans to monitor her over the next few days before making his Doomben 10,000 call.

He won't have any hesitation pulling up stumps if there's an inkling Black Caviar is not in mint condition.

"I'd love to be back here in two weeks," Moody said.

"It's tremendous for an old Queensland boy to come back here in front of this crowd but if there's an element of doubt with her she won't run in the 10,000."