Kids sat on their fathers' shoulders just to get a look at her and a crowd stood guard around her stall all day.
They waved flags and pinned badges to their chests in honour of their hero and she didn't let anyone down.
Black Caviar came to Flemington on Saturday as the supreme sprinting racehorse of the world and left the track as one of the greats of the Australian turf - the latter probably being the superior honour.
Her win in the Group One Newmarket Handicap (1200m) was Black Caviar's 10th from as many starts - an undefeated run no other horse in this country has ever achieved.
She won Australia's premier sprint race untouched by three lengths in faster time than any of the race's previous 137 winners, and could easily have gone faster.
And she carried a modern-day record for a mare of 58kg.
"It's just nice to have put it behind us," said her trainer Peter Moody.
"It's a great relief."
The laconic Moody is the perfect complement to a mare who on Saturday gave the status of triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva a nudge.
The trainer loves her and it shows in almost every word he speaks about her.
"The only thing that I ever worry about is hurting her," he said.
"I'd be devastated for the owners and all the people who have come to see her if something had gone wrong."
Black Caviar left the gates cleanly, cruised in second place until the 350m mark and then her jockey Luke Nolen shook the reins, the gears changed and she accelerated without effort.
Behind her, some decent horses went silly trying to chase her.
She ran the 1200m in 1:7.36, only 0.2 seconds outside the track record.
But it was the all-important sectional times, the figures that tell the true story of a race, that were most dazzling.
Black Caviar ran her final 600m in 32.67s and the last 400m in 22.40s with Nolen easing her down.
"I said to Luke, be as kind as you can for as long as you can," Moody said.
"You don't have to be three in front at the furlong (200m), just be a half-inch in front on the line."
As for overall impressions?
"You wouldn't want to be chasing her on foot, would you?" Moody said.
In more ways than one, Black Caviar has filled the void left by the retirement of the two most popular horses to have raced in Australia in the past decade - Makybe Diva and Takeover Target.
She has a long way to go before she wins as much money as either of them, but if she comes through her immediate campaign with her unbeaten record intact, she won't need to.
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