$108,000 plunge on Winx
Winx’s 22 race winning streak has been an anxious but profitable risk versus reward journey for big spending punters.
And it will be more of the same when she returns for her first run of 2018 in Sydney on Saturday.
Seemingly everyone wants Winx to keep her record-breaking run alive but one Australian punter will be feeling the heat more than most when the gates swing open at Randwick.
The Australian TAB has taken its biggest ever win bet on Winx – the horse that has apparently forgotten how to lose.
Winx, a winner of A$15,627,925 (NZ$16,714,259) in stakes, will take just over 90 seconds to run the 1600 metre distance of the Group I Chipping Norton Stakes.
The A$108,000 (NZ$115,507) bet at $1.06 will return the punter A$114,480 (NZ$122,437) for a profit of just A$6,480 (NZ$6930).
A six-figure risk for such a small profit might seem a major gamble but Winx, a three-time Cox Plate winner, is about as close as you can get to a sure thing.
Before her third Cox Plate victory last October, Australian betting agency Sports Bet famously paid out on 3000 win bets two days before the race jumped.
The biggest bet the Australian TAB had previously taken on Winx was in her last start – the 2017 Cox Plate.
That A$106,500 (NZ$113,903) bet at $1.15 returned A$122,475 (NZ$130,988).
The New Zealand TAB is yet to take any significant win bets on Winx ahead of Saturday but that will likely change before the Chipping Norton Stakes runs at 5.30pm (3.30pm in Sydney).
It was offering odds of $1.08 but most Australian bookmakers have her marked at $1.06.
Shortly before her victory in the Turnbull Stakes last October – win 21 of her history making streak – the New Zealand TAB took an $80,000 investment at $1.20.
That bet returned $96,000 for a profit of $16,000.
As with every time Winx takes to the track, the majority of multibets the New Zealand TAB hold over the weekend will include the wonder mare to win.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand TAB has seen some significant early bets on Saturday’s $1 million New Zealand Derby (2400m) at Ellerslie.
Danzdanzdance, the race favourite who is part-owned by former international supermodel Kylie Bax, has been the subject of three four-figure bets.
If the only filly in the race is successful, two punters – who have spent $2500 and $1600 at $4.20 – will bank $10,500 and $6720 respectively.
Another $2000 bet on Danzdanzdance, who was purchased by Bax for just $5000 at the Karaka yearling sales, at $3.80 will return $7600.
As a result of the support for the Mastercraftsman filly, who was a close second behind On The Rocks in the Avondale Guineas, she had firmed into $3.50.
Mission Hill, who was fifth in the Avondale Guineas, has been the subject of a $1000 bet at $6.
If Mission Hill can win on Saturday the big punter would bank $6000 and Danielle Johnson would become the first female jockey to win the Derby.