WINX ON COURSE TO EMULATE ‘GREATEST EVER’
WINX is set to end her race career with the same winning record as the legendary Phar Lap.
Sydney’s super mare is scheduled to have three more starts this autumn and if she can continue her phenomenal winning streak, she will retire with 37 career wins.
By a remarkable coincidence, Phar Lap also won 37 races during his famous race career.
Phar Lap has been widely regarded as the greatest ever but there are many who now rate Winx at least his equal.
There is a real symmetry to Winx retiring with the same number of wins as Phar Lap, ensuring the two great champions will forever be linked in racing history.
Winx is being readied for next Saturday’s Group 1 $600,000 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Royal Randwick, a race she has already won with relative ease the last three years.
She is likely to be up against a small field including old rival Happy Clapper with TAB Fixed Odds rating her $1.10 favourite to extend her winning streak to 31, stretching nearly four years.
“People are understanding how hard it is to win 30 in a row,’’ trainer Chris Waller said. “You don’t do it by being the best horse on one day but by being the best over three or four years.
“She has overcome track conditions, barrier draws, slow starts, wide runs you name it – that’s Winx.’’
Phar Lap won only one race in his first 10 starts but was then won 36 of his final 41 races. Phar Lap’s longest winning streak was 14.