Greats have say on Winx

SHE is on the verge of achieving what no other horse in world racing history has done.

However, still there are those who believe Winx could have been defeated by the best of the best when it comes to Cox Plate winners over the past 40 years.

That timeline takes us back to 1979 with Brent Thomson aboard the Colin Hayestrained Dulcify in a sevenlength romp, something that had not previously been seen in a race that began in 1922.

It left racegoers stunned and highlighted what was surely going to be a stellar career that would rewrite the record books.

A week later Dulcify bolted in at Flemington in the Mackinnon Stakes. Three days after that he was dead after fracturing a pelvis in the Melbourne Cup when cruising.

Thomson still shakes his head when recalling the son of Decies and Sweet Candy.

“And I’ll tell you what, as great as Winx is, you could leave me on Dulcify if picking the best horses to win it over the past 40 years,” said Thomson, who won a remarkable four Cox Plates in five years between 1975-79.

“The day Dulcify won he ran a faster final 600m than the winner of the Moir Stakes which is a 1000m sprint (The Judge and Grey Sapphire dead-heated).

“That’s hard to believe and it shows why Dulcify could have gone to Europe and beaten the best. And he would win by margins.

“Having said that, Winx is clearly entitled to be spoken of as one of our best ever, Sunline

is obvious, and there are so many other champions or near champions who win the Cox Plate.

“Just after Kingston Town you had winners like Strawberry Road and Red Anchor.”

Thomson said the one factor that stamps a 2000m superstar is their ability to explode in races, a characteristic shared by Winx, Dulcify, Kingston Town and a bay gelding named Better Loosen Up.

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AVID Hayes trained Better Loosen Up to win the 1990 edition of the race, a month before travelling to Japan where the eventual Australian Racing Hall of Famer became the only local horse to win a Japan Cup.

Hayes has no doubt that Better Loosen Up and Dulcify, who he spent a lot of time around in his father’s stables, had the necessary ingredients to beat both Winx and Kingston Town, but points to one significant difference when comparing the classy quartet.

“The difference is not their ability, but their longevity,” Hayes said.

“On their day Better Loosen Up and Dulcify would be ex- tremely competitive because they both had the superstar qualities of Winx and Kingston Town but they did it for one season due to injury (Better Loosen Up) and death (Dulcify),” Hayes said.

“At their best they would have mixed it with them but they didn’t do it for three or four years. So that’s why I wouldn’t rate them better than Winx and Kingston Town.”

What Hayes is confident in saying is that the class of weight-for-age horses 30 and 40 years ago was superior to today.

“In Better Loosen Up’s era there were classic weight-forage horses such as Stylish Century, Vo Rogue, Super Impose, Sydeston, Naturalism, Rough Habit, and they were a lot better weight-for-age horses than Winx meets today.”

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ON Quinton, these days a successful Sydney trainer after a riding career of extreme merit, agrees with Hayes concerning the depth of WFA racing.

And Quinton knows a bit about the Cox Plate, having ridden Kingston Town to victory in the second of his threepeat.

“You know what, I’d be very happy to be on Kingston Town but I’m not saying he would beat her,” Quinton said.

Greg Hall rode Super Impose to victory in a Cox Plate for the ages, the 1992 edition that featured Group horses galore. Like Quinton, Hall has total respect for Winx but would not be unhappy to find himself aboard Kingston Town.

“I always said Kingston Town was the best and now Winx has come along and you could be justified in jumping ship,” he said.

“But in saying that I would have loved to see her against Kingston Town. He would have put her to the sword coming around the corner and may have been in front of her in the run.

“He could do things just as good as Winx. I saw him in the Sydney Cup as a three-yearold back near last take off at the mile, sit outside the leader and then brain them.

“Could he have beaten Winx? Yes. And you certainly wouldn’t be frightened with her in it.”

The final word goes to the great Harry White, who won on Rubiton in a very fast time in 1987 after Vo Rogue went out like the clappers.

“A champion will win it this year and the horse’s name will be Winx,” White said.

“She is who I would ride if you gave me a choice of any winner because she is the best horse I’ve seen.”