WINX IS BACK
CHAMP TRIALS TODAY
TRAINER Chris Waller likened Winx’s first trial to a “pre-season game” as the champion mare prepares to blow out some cobwebs at Randwick today.
Winx will make her first public appearance of the campaign when she tackles seven runners in the opening heat of the Randwick trials over 900m at 8.45am today.
Despite her 17-start winning streak in races, Winx has never finished closer than third in 14 career trials and that record is unlikely to be bettered today.
“It’s hard for people to understand, especially when so many people are interested in Winx,” Waller said.
“She is having a pre-season game to gradually rebuild her fitness.
“Until you have them fully fit you can’t risk doing too much because that’s when you can have your injuries.
“It all depends what is in the heat and if there are good sprinters in the heat she could run last and if there are two milers in it she could win it.
“She will be there to have a day out, keep safe, come
home and she might do a little bit more in her second trial.”
Winx will have two trials before she resumes in the Group 2 Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on August 19.
Waller has programmed four lead-up runs for Winx before she bids to equal Kingston Town’s record of winning three Cox Plates.
But Waller will be happy to miss one of these lead-up races if need be due to track conditions and other factors.
Waller said Winx was coming along nicely ahead of the spring.
“She is fine,” he said. “She went out in good shape (after the autumn) and after the Cox Plate (last spring) she was on antibiotics for a few weeks.
“The prep before that she had an operation and the prep before that she was still growing. She is a mature horse and she is at a similar (weight) to where she was (at this time last preparation).
“She is a little bit bigger but she is a mature horse as anyone over 35 years of age understands.”
Winx’s regular jockey Hugh Bowman had his first sit on Winx this campaign in a track gallop on Friday and will ride the great mare in today’s trial.
“She is in great shape and I’m looking forward to (today),” Bowman said on Friday.
“She feels good, her action is great and she has matured a bit more. It’s all systems go.”
■ QUEENSLAND Oaks winner Egg Tart is likely to follow the same program Winx did after her win in the race.
Like Winx in the spring of 2015, Egg Tart will likely resume in the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill on September 9 before tackling the Group 1 Epsom (1600m) at Randwick on September 30.