Hard to believe Winx keeps getting better
WINX has already secured her ranking among the all- time greats — but the evidence is growing that she could be better than ever.
Sydney’s mighty mare is on a 15race unbeaten streak stretching nearly two years and during this period she has netted 10 Group 1 wins, including successive Cox Plates, the Doncaster Mile and Epsom Handicap.
It is hard to imagine there could be any room for improvement given Winx’s race record but her two comeback wins this campaign have been awesome.
Winx returned her highest- ever rating for a first- up win in her dominant Apollo Stakes win two weeks ago and then produced a complete performance ploughing through Randwick’s very heavy track conditions to win the Chipping Norton Stakes on Saturday.
There is no challenger on the horizon and as a rising six- year- old mare, she is at the peak of her physical development.
Winx makes winning at the highest level look so easy and her regular rider, Hugh Bowman, complements the mare so well.
Where she rates among the legends of Aus- tralian racing is open for debate but now there is no doubt she is nestled comfortably in that pantheon.
Winx will have two more runs this campaign, in the $ 1 million George Ryder Stakes ( 1500m) and $ 4 million Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes ( 2000m). If she wins both, and let’s face it she is vastly superior to her opposition, she will take her prizemoney to nearly $ 12.8 million to trail only Makybe Diva ($ 14.5 million) on the all- time prizemoney list. TRAINER Chris Waller was considering withdrawing Winx from the Chipping Norton due to the deteriorating track conditions but he wanted to see if the great mare was effective in very heavy going.
“We needed to know how she copes with heavy going now as a more mature horse as they do change as they get older,’’ Waller said. “There is a good chance it could be wet through The Championships but we know where she is at now. She handled the heavy conditions pretty easily.’’ W I N X ’ S fourth Group 1 win has ensured Waller stays in touch with Darren Weir in the race to be the nation’s leading Group 1 trainer this season.
Weir remains in front with six majors after Black Heart Bart scored in the last stride in the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield. Black Heart Bart has also claimed four Group 1 wins this season.
It’s close between Waller and Weir for the prizemoney “race”. Both have prepared the winners of $ 14.1 million this season. SINCE 2000, Australian racing has boasted a string of champion mares — Sunline, Makybe Diva, Black Caviar, More Joyous, Atlantic Jewel and now Winx.
Peter Moody, the trainer of Black Caviar, has a theory about why there has been such a plethora of truly outstanding mares in recent years. “There are not that many of the
good colts that race past three these days –— they are whisked off to stud pretty quickly,’’ Moody said.
“It is an art in itself keeping entires racing year after year.” TRAINER Lee Curtis may never have felt so happy to be beaten after his filly Lasqueti Spirit’s brave second in the Chipping Norton Stakes.
Curtis revealed plans to keep taking on the older horses with Lasqueti Spirit. She will run in the Sky High Stakes in two weeks and The BMW ( 2400m) on March 25 before she races against the fillies again in the ATC Australian Oaks ( 2400m) on April 8. But it is back to the drawing board for Godolphin after Hartnell’s poor eighth to Winx.
Trainer John O’Shea said he will try to space Hartnell’s races. The Ranvet Stakes on Slipper Day is the gelding’s next start.