Let the afterburners on Winx go Hughie . . .

This is almost certainly the last time Victorian racegoers will get the chance to see Winx in the flesh.

You never say never, but the chances of her turning up for a fifth Cox Plate as an eight-year-old are at longer odds than a Donald Trump apology, while a victory and a record-breaking fourth Plate today would in all likelihood ensure either retirement or a spell before a final swansong in Sydney at the Championships.

While local opposition particularly in the shape of potential superstar three-year-old The Autumn Sun - has melted away, it is to the credit of global stable superpowers Coolmore and Godolphin that they are throwing down the gauntlet with Rostropovich and Benbatl respectively. The former, a threeyear-old, is likely to be found wanting, as his odds suggest.

But the latter, a proven threetime group 1 winner in the Cox Plate distance range of 2040 metres, is a realistic chance of providing a proper test for the wonder mare.

And that is something to celebrate. No true racing fan wanted her to be handed a fourth Cox Plate almost by acclamation so she could race into immortality.

More importantly, Benbatl will provide a good form line to the top level in Europe so we will get to see if the questioning of Winx’s achievements in Australia is justified, or whether criticisms that she beats the same non-entities week in and week out are, as her trainer Chris Waller said this week, utter nonsense.

Benbatl is a solid group 1 yardstick. He is tough, competitive, combative and talented, but he is rated some way behind the likes of Enable, Cracksman and champion three-year-old Roaring Lion in Britain. If he can serve it right up to Winx, the critics will feel justified and claim they have a point.

But if the converse is the case, and Winx brushes him aside with ease, then she will deserve to be hailed the best of the best and finish the season with the world’s top horse ranking - irrespective of the ease of Cracksman’s dominant win in the English Champion Stakes last weekend. For the sake of all who love a champion, and the global position of Australian racing, there will be few at Moonee Valley who will be cheering for anything but a Winx whitewash.

So here’s my plea to jockey Hughie Bowman: if she is cantering all over them at the top of the straight and easing to victory, engage the turbo boosters and let her romp to the post. That will be the image that will go down in history; the footage that archivists and racing historians will be poring over in 50 years. And what an image that would leave for posterity.

Defeat, of course, would not lessen her previous achievements but would alter the perspective. Whatever happens, we should celebrate a marvellous career, a great race and savour the prospect of an equine legend becoming an immortal.