Winx makes and breaks the record
AUSTRALIAN legend Winx made history at Randwick on Saturday when breaking Black Caviar's record of 25 straight victories by winning the race named in her honour, the Group 1 weight for age A$500,000 Winx Stakes over 1400m.
The seven-year-old daughter of Street Cry proved in the process she is deserving of her status as best racehorse in the world as the race didn't pan out well for her but she still romped home by two lengths under regular pilot Hugh Bowman.
Winx was having her first start since April and started at odds of 1-4. Her chief market rival was the highly regarded Godolphin-trained Group 1 Randwick Guineas winner Kementari. This fouryear-old Lonhro colt started at 5-1 and was ridden by ex-pat South African Glyn Schofield.
Kementari
Winx did not break exceptionally well and was in the back half of the field, two lengths behind Kementari.
Bowman moved her alongside Ke men tariatt he halfway mark and she was thus trapped wide. Kementari then moved around horses for a run meaning Winx was carried very wide into the 400m straight. The leaders had meanwhile stolen a march down the inside.
A lesser horse would have had little chance of making up the five lengths or so she was still required to do and this proved to be the case with Kementari. However, her machine-like stride carried her forward and by the 200m mark she had hit top gear. She was still two lengths down and it was now clear she was going to make up the deficit.
By the 100m mark she had hit the front and she won easing up.An examination of the sectional times is further evidence Winx’s speed and power isn’t diminishing with age.
She ran the final 600m in a stunning 32.33s (wind-assisted), easily the fastest closing sectional of the day despite having to make her run wide out on a track where those on the inside were favoured.
Between the 400m and 200m, Winx was timed to run a blistering 10.48s sectional as she sprinted to the lead and even though Bowman eased up on the great mare 50m out, she still ran her final 200m in 10.79s.
Bowman
“Her greatest attributes are her will-towin and her ability to sustain high speed,’’ Bowman said.
Waller indicated Winx won’t race again until the Group 1 George Main Stakes (1600m) at Royal Randwick on September 15.Winx also became the 14th horse to cross the line first 30 or more times in a career. She broke the world record number of Group 1 wins in March and has now won a further two to make it 19 in all.
Winx's record-breaking achievements will be celebrated with her image on a A$1 postage stamp available from next week.
Coincidentally, this 19th Group 1 success came on the foal date of Black Caviar, who was born exactly 12 years earlier. Winx’s connections have avoided an overseas campaign in favour of going for a record-breaking fourth consecutive Cox Plate, which is Australia’s most prestigious weight for age event.
It is run over 2040m at Moonee Valley racecourse in Melbourne in late October and with a stake of A$5million is Australias’s second richest weight for age race.
The great Phar Lap won it twice and all of Winx, Kingston Town (1980-1982), Rising Fast (1954-1956) and Chatham (1932-1934) have won it three times in succession. Monee Valley is a highly unusual track as it is rectangular in shape but one of the short sides is used as the straight.
It is only 1805m in circumference and the straight is a mere 173m long, the shortest in Australia. Yet the best horse invariably wins the Cox Plate.
An explanation is that the pace is always hot and the best horses manage to get on to the back of the “trains” which are caused by horses going wide towards the end of the back straight in order to get a run.
Waller
Winx is trained by New Zealand-born Chris Waller, whose headquarters are at Rosehill in Sydney, but he also has bases in Flemington, Warwick Farm and on the new Gold Coast in Queensland.
She was sold as a yearling for $230,000 at the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast sale. She was part of a draft of horses from Coolmore Stud and was selected by Mulcaster Bloodstock to be purchased "to a budget" by a partnership of Magic Bloodstock Racing (owned by Peter Tighe and his wife Patty), Richard Treweeke and Debbie Kepitis. As her dam is named Vegas Showgirl, the partners named the filly for a Las Vegas burlesque show from the 1970s and 1980s. She races in Magic Bloodstock's silks: dark blue with white epaulettes and a large white "M".
Her earnings of A$19,290,420 is an Australian record.