Crowd in silent awe of champ’s trackwork
FOR Chris Waller it was the silence that stood out as much as anything else.
As his mare Winx turned for home at Moonee Valley in her last piece of fast work before her shot at a Cox Plate three- peat, he could sense the quiet anticipation of those early starters who only had eyes for one horse out of the almost 50 galloping at y e s t e r d a y ’ s B r e a k f a s t With The Best. He had r e h e a r s e d the moment in his mind the previous night. In the witching hour before a few hours sleep, Waller mulled over the scenarios.
He held a slight concern the crowd might be so enamoured with the champ they could have inadvertently stirred her up with the cheering during an important track gallop.
He shouldn’t have worried. When Winx began to thunder down the straight on her own just after 5.30am yesterday – as she has so seamlessly done twice before in Cox Plates – the trainer acknowledged you could hear “a pin drop”.
The only thing breaking the silence was Winx’s galloping hoofs bouncing off the track and her nostrils flaring as she went past the line.
“It was quite humbling,” Waller said as the six- year- old mare headed back to stall 54, with plenty of trackwatchers following her every move as if she was the Pied Piper.
“I was sort of thinking ( on Monday night) ‘ I wonder what people are going to do when she goes on to the track? Are they going to upset her? Are they going to clap when she comes down the straight?’.
“( But) everyone was polite, which was fantastic.
‘‘ It was a very serious piece of work this morning ... you can’t have anything go wrong at this late stage.”
Jockey Hugh Bowman left the track feeling more confident Winx is perfectly placed to join the legendary Kingston Town as the only horses in history to win three Cox Plates. “I am very comfortable, more so after ( yesterday) morning’s track gallop,” he said.