It’s over to you, Winx
All the talking has been done ahead of champ’s Cox Plate mission
RACING: Chris Waller has said all there is to say about Winx in the long buildup to the mare’s historic fourth Cox Plate mission.
Now it’s over to the champion herself to do the talking on the racetrack today at Moonee Valley.
Winx has done that for three-and-ahalf years during a winning sequence of 28 races, including 21 Group 1 victories.
“She’s well,” Waller said. “One more sleep to go, that’s about all I can say.
“She’s 100 per cent. It’s getting closer and closer, and everything is perfect.”
Winx has the chance to do what no horse has done before in Australasia’s weight-for-age championship.
A year ago she joined Kingston Town as the only three-time Cox Plate winner, but come this afternoon the sevenyear-old could stand alone.
Waller is convinced Winx will go into the race in basically the same condition as before her third Cox Plate win last year.
On that occasion she repelled a strong challenge from Humidor to better the 2040m track record she had set in her first Cox Plate victory in 2015.
Humidor is among Winx’s main rivals again and there are two northern hemisphere visitors, Benbatl and Rostropovich, and one New Zealand mare, Savvy Coup, in the field of eight.
Irish training maestro Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore won the last Cox Plate not to feature Winx, when Adelaide was successful in 2014.
The pair combine again with Rostropovich in the $5 million race.
Godolphin’s Benbatl, the winner of the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes two weeks ago, will be ridden by English-based Irish jockey Oisin Murphy.
Murphy arrived in Melbourne yesterday excited about the Cox Plate challenge, having spent a couple of months in Melbourne as an apprentice in the 2013-14 season.
“Take nothing away from Winx, her record is absolutely outstanding and her connections have done an unbelievable job managing her career,” Murphy told Melbourne radio RSN927.
“Realistically on ratings and everything, she’s a standout and she’s well clear, but Benbatl comes into the race in good form.”
Murphy has five wins from eight rides on Benbatl including two at Group 1 level this year.
“I can’t wait for tomorrow,” he said.