Cox Plate win won’t spell end for Winx

DEBBIE Kepitis maintains there has been no thought of retiring champion mare Winx if she wins an unprecedented fourth Cox Plate this month.

There have been suggestions the Cox Plate could be Winx’s final race start but Kepitis, who part-owns Winx with Richard Treweeke and Peter Tighe, dismissed speculation.

“There has been no retirement talk, definitely not,’’ Kepitis said yesterday. “If all goes well, Winx will run in the Cox Plate, she will definitely go for a spell and then we will see how she is (next autumn),

“As Chris (Waller) keeps saying, she is racing so well you would be doing her a disservice by retiring her. She is enjoying it and wants to race.’’

Winx extended her phenomenal winning streak to 28 and took out her 21st Group 1 win in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.

Sydney’s super mare is racing as well as ever, as evidenced by her memorable Turnbull Stakes triumph, her ninth successive Group 1 win.

Winx seemed to be in trouble back near last on the inside coming to the turn but was able to reel off three successive sub-11 200m sectional splits from the 600m to the finish to power past her rivals and win with relative ease.

Kepitis admitted “heart-in-the-mouth watching Winx’s race.

“Once she got through (the gap) it was all good,’’ she said.

“But the day felt different from the moment I woke up in the (saturday) morning. It worried me, it concerned me all day although everything was OK in the end.”

Kepitis, Tighe and Waller are teaming up again for the $13 million The TAB Everest on Saturday as slot-holders with Brave Smash.

The Darren Weir-trained Brave Smash ran third in the inaugural Everest behind Redzel last year but seems to be going better this spring, including his last-start second to Viddora in the Group 1 Moir Stakes. it was stuff”