Weight’s right for turf great
TRAINER Chris Waller believes Winx’s rare ability to cope with the exacting demands of top-level racing is one of the keys to her remarkable consistency and longevity.
The champion mare will be aiming for her 27th consecutive win when she lines up in the Group 1 George Main Stakes (1600m) at Randwick tomorrow.
Her winning streak stretches more than three years.
Waller said Winx was unlike any horse he had trained in the way she could hold her condition through an exacting race preparation.
“I have never seen it before,’’ Waller said.
“You send her to the races and she will drop a couple of kilos and then put her on the scales on a Monday and she’s back to her racing weight.
“Almost every horse at the start of the preparation will lose 10kg and put some of it back on but not all of it.
“She will stay the same weight, unless you want her to get fitter.
“We wind her up a bit as her distances step up and then she will tighten up a bit.
“She doesn’t eat any more than other horses, it’s almost like she keeps an eye on her weight. It is quite weird, it is every strange. She is just a unique horse.’’
Waller also said that in most of Winx’s races she won with “a bit in hand”, which helped her to recover quickly.
“Maybe it is because she is not under pressure to win (many of) her races,’’ he said.
If Winx wins as expected, she will take her world record for Group 1 wins to 20 and her national record of consecutive wins to 27.
“She doesn’t show the signs of slowing down,’’ Waller said.