She’s more than a one-trick pony
WINX is smarter than the average racehorse, jockey Hugh Bowman has revealed in a unique insight into the superstar mare.
“She’s very uncomplicated,” Bowman said yesterday ahead of the seven-year-old’s tilt at a historic fourth straight Cox Plate at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
“She’s very straightforward. What I loved about (yesterday’s gallop) … when I cantered off in front of the crowd, she was very relaxed.
“She was above herself. She would have just jumped straight on the bridle and she would have tried to take off down the hill before I was
ready but she just cantered calmly down the side.
“When we got to the 1200m mark, she knew where that was and she knew I was going to let her go a bit quicker.
“And before I let her, she took me quicker. All the signs are there … she’s a very intelligent individual.”
Bowman doesn’t talk to her much and it’s taken some time for the jockey to work out certain mannerisms.
He said Winx’s strapper Umut Odemislioglu had noted the mare’s smarts when putting her through her paces in the pool at her home base at Rosehill in Sydney.
“Even he said, ‘when I swim her … and they have a lead on both sides, when she gets to the end of the pool, she puts her head to one side to get one lead off and then (the other)’. Just little idiosyncrasies, I guess.” Bowman, 38, is attempting to steer Winx to a 29th straight victory this weekend at Moonee Valley.
“She loves it here,” he said. “I remember the first time I worked her here in 2016 – the first time she’d been back after the first Cox Plate win – and she got to where I let her go in the first Cox Plate and just took off on me.
“I think she knows the track better than I do.
“She’s very uncomplicated. She’s a real athlete.
“She’s a very strong horse but it’s controlled power and it’s something that I just try to control and save it for the race day.”
Thousands of fans turned up for the annual Breakfast With The Best day to watch Winx work.