With no Winx he’ll go like the Clapper
HAPPY Clapper, the only horse all spring that has bounced off the ropes after a Winx beating, can benefit from the great mare’s absence and claim a career-best win in the Group 1 Emirates Stakes at Flemington tomorrow.
Winx’s unbeaten five-race romp through the Sydney and Melbourne spring carnivals left a trail of humbled horses behind her who have raced poorly next start.
They include Humidor, a close second in the Cox Plate to Winx, before finishing 19th in the Melbourne Cup.
Foxplay needed a month to get over her narrow loss to Winx in the Warwick Stakes and Red Excitement followed his length second to the champion in the Chelmsford by finishing second last to her in the George Main Stakes.
Ventura Storm has flopped in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups after finishing second in the Turnbull Stakes, albeit more than six lengths behind the mighty mare.
But Happy Clapper finished a close second to Winx in the George Main Stakes then two weeks later broke through at Group 1 level in the Epsom Handicap.
Trainer Pat Webster said he was satisfied with Happy Clapper’s recent sixth in Winx’s Cox Plate (2040m) when the gelding didn’t enjoy the best of runs, and has continued preparations for the Emirates Stakes (2000m) tomorrow.
“We are going to give ‘Clapper’ a good spell anyway so, as there is nothing wrong with him, this race is an obvious target for the horse,’’ Webster said.
“To be honest, we probably would have run even if Winx was in the race because we don’t mind running second to her – someone has to!
“But she is not there, she is out in the paddock, so that gives all of us a chance.”
Happy Clapper is at $7.50 in early UBET Fixed Odds markets on the Emirates, the final Group 1 race of the carnival.
Godolphin’s Folkswood, the minor placegetter in Winx’s historic Cox Plate three-peat, is the $5.50 favourite.