Unbeaten mare Black Caviar has produced what Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter declared a world-class performance to win the Group One Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington.Carpenter said Black Caviar would almost certainly be promoted to "champion sprinter of the world" when global ratings are officially released in January following next month's Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin.Trainer Peter Moody described the four-year-old as "an awesome machine" after she posted her eighth win in a

Unbeaten mare Black Caviar has produced what Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter declared a world-class performance to win the Group One Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington.

Carpenter said Black Caviar would almost certainly be promoted to "champion sprinter of the world" when global ratings are officially released in January following next month's Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin.

Trainer Peter Moody described the four-year-old as "an awesome machine" after she posted her eighth win in a row and smashed through the $1 million barrier in earnings with an extraordinary four-length win over last week's Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Star Witness, with Ortensia another 2-1/4 lengths away third.

Her time of 1:07.96 was just eight-tenths of second outside the course record held by Iglesia since 2001.

The anticipated match race between Black Caviar and Hay List failed to eventuate with the Manikato Stakes winner a fading sixth of the seven runners and just under 11 lengths behind Black Caviar.

Carpenter said Black Caviar was a champion.

"Today was a big test for her but mathematically if you accept that Star Witness has run to his rating of 116 and everything else in the field has run well off theirs, it still gets her (Black Caviar) to 123 which would make her the highest-rated sprinter in the world beyond Sacred Kingdom and Starspangledbanner.

"It is now a matter for me to put the evidence before the international handicapping panel but I am reasonably confident come the end of the year she will be declared the champion sprinter of the world."

Moody was lost for words and as tried to find the appropriate superlatives for his super mare.

"I have got the pleasure of being very closely involved but I think that (performance) would make the hair stand up on the back of anyone's neck," Moody said.

"That was a quality lot of horses and she was simply awesome. It was amazing."

Jockey Ben Melham replaced suspended stable rider Luke Nolen to win his first Group One race.

"To have something to do with such a great mare like this is the biggest thrill I have had so far in racing," he said.

"I knew she was good, but horses just don't do what she did.

"When I asked her to quicken at the furlong (200m) she lengthened again and the frightening part was I still wasn't near the bottom of her, I don't think."

Black Caviar would have raced more often but for a chest strain a year ago and a suspensory problem last autumn.

"Most horses with her ability would have won a Group One at their third or fourth start but it just hasn't fallen for her with injury and so on," Moody said.

"It is a massive relief. It would have been a tragedy if a horse like this went to the breeding barn without a Group One beside her name."

Hay List kicked a horse trough last week and needed five stitches and trainer John McNair said it appeared the injury had affected the horse more than he and three vets thought.

"We lost the battle today but it is not the end of the war," he said.

Both Hay List and Black Caviar will now be spelled and a rematch is set for the Group One Lightning Stakes (1000m), again at Flemington, on February 19.