Winx

Bay mare (2011), Street Cry - Vegas Showgirl - Inducted in 2017

Winx may not have the stride length of some champions, however, her extremely efficient 2.7 strides per second is quicker than champion sprinters such as Chatauqua.

Biography

TRAINER: Chris Waller

OWNERS: Magic Bloodstock under the management of Peter Tighe, Richard Treweeke and Debbie Kepitis

RACE RECORD/STAKE MONEY: 27 starts: 21 wins, 3 seconds, 0 thirds/$12,893,430 and $30,000 in bonuses

Major Wins 

  • Queensland Oaks; Doomben; 30 May 2015
  • Epsom Handicap; Randwick; 3 Oct 2015
  • W.S. Cox Plate; Moonee Valley; 24 Oct 2015
  • Chipping Norton Stakes; Randwick; 27 Feb 2016
  • George Ryder Stakes; Rosehill; 19 March 2016
  • Doncaster Handicap; Randwick; 2 April 2016
  • George Main Stakes; Randwick; 17 September 2016
  • Caulfield Stakes; Caulfield; 8 October; 2016
  • W.S. Cox Plate; Moonee Valley; 22 Oct 2016
  • Chipping Norton Stakes; Randwick; 25 Feb 2017
  • George Ryder Stakes; Rosehill; 18 March 2017
  • Queen Elizabeth Stakes; Randwick; 8 April 2017

About

Winx rose to prominence during her three-year-old season, her comfortable win in the 2014 Furious Stakes at Randwick heralding the arrival of a mare with ability. Unbeaten as a 4-year-old she claimed wins including the Theo Marks and Epsom Handicaps, but it was her Cox Plate success in a race record time that cemented her greatness.

Only the sixth Australasian champion to win seventeen or more races in succession, Winx has, by public acclamation, been crowned a First Lady of the Australian Turf. Her trainer Chris Waller said of Winx after her amazing 2016 Doncaster Handicap win: ‘’I’ll call her a champion while I can speak. I thought she was beaten at the half mile. She must have an amazing will to win.’’

For the 2015-16 racing season Winx was voted Australian Horse of the Year, and she finished 2016 as the highest ranked turf horse in the world.

On induction into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2017 she had raced 27 times for 21 wins and three seconds; including 12 Group One wins.

Her journey continues.

‘What impresses me is not so much the acceleration she can show, because all the Group 1 horses have that, but the way she can sustain it is unique.’ Hugh Bowman

Image Source: Pat Scala, Racing Photos