By Kelsey Riley
Australia's latest supermare, Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}), had never given her growing legion of fans a moment's worry in her three prior starts this year leading into Saturday's G1 Doncaster Mile. The bay gave her backers a moment's worry, however, when coming under a ride by jockey Hugh Bowman at the top of the Randwick stretch Saturday, but she got into a rhythm soon after and won in her customary dominant style to put an exclamation point on the opening day of The Championships and earn a berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita Park in November.
Trainer Chris Waller reflected on the pressure of preparing the country's best horse, saying, “It's been a pretty tough week, to say the least. It's taken things to a new level for me. I don't know how Peter Moody [with Black Caviar] did it is all I can say, and I've only done it for about five starts.”
Waller added, “I thought she was beaten at the half-mile, let alone the 600-metre mark; she was going nowhere and I have never seen Hughie have to niggle her. Even after a few hundred metres, she never gets right back there unless we are taking her back from wide draws, but that was not really the plan. She just looked like she was skipping a few strides on the track, maybe she wasn't, but gee she showed some guts that last 200 metres.”
Waller added, “We took on the handicapper. She's a champion. Does it get any better? It's pretty unbelievable.”
Saturday, Randwick, Australia
DONCASTER H.-G1, A$3,124,500, ATC, 4-2, 3yo/up, Open Handicap, 1600mT, 1:35.27, Soft.
1–WINX, 56.5, m, 4, by Street Cry (IRE)
1st Dam: Vegas Showgirl (NZ) (MSW & GSP-Aus, $172,062), by Al Akbar
2nd Dam: Vegas Magic, by Voodoo Rhythm (USA)
3rd Dam: Vegas Street (NZ), by Sovereign Edition (IRE)
(A$230,000 Ylg 2013 MM Gold Coast Yearling Sale) O-Magic
Bloodstock Racing (Mgr: P G Tighe), R G Treweeke & Mrs D N
Kepitis; B-Fairway Thoroughbreds NSW; T-C J Waller; J-J
Bowman; A$1,924,500. Lifetime Record: 19-13-3-0,
A$6,678,425. *1/2 to El Divino (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), GSW-Aus,
$114,025. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Happy Clapper, 50.5, g, 5, Teofilo (Ire)–Busking, by Encosta
de Lago. O-M W Thomas; B-Mr M Thomas ACT; T-P J Webster;
J-B Avdulla; A$520,000.
3–Azkadellia (NZ), 50.0, m, 4, Shinko King (IRE)–Raving (NZ), by
Centaine. O-B Connolly; B-C R Linton, Central, NZ; T-C Maher;
J-G Boss; A$240,000.
Margins: 2.0 len, 2.2 len, 6.3 len. Odds: 0.80, 12.00, 8.00.
Also Ran: Vergara, Bow Creek (IRE), Stratum Star, Good Project, He or She, Rudy, Volkstok'n'barrell (NZ), Ecuador (NZ), First Seal, Aomen (IRE), Turn Me Loose (NZ), Kermadec (NZ).
Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO.
Traveling near last as Vergara (Aus) (Snippetson {Aus}) set the tempo in the Doncaster, Winx still had 10 lengths to make up and was under a ride as the field raced towards the top of the stretch. Behind a wall of horses swinging into the straight, Winx sliced her way between rivals under Hugh Bowman, took dead aim on Vergara at the 200 metre mark and drew clear from a fast-finishing Happy Clapper in the closing stages.
Winx played a minor part in this meeting last year, finishing second in the G1 Australian Oaks, but her profile has been anything but small ever since. The bay kicked off a now 9-race win streak in her next race that would see her collect six Group 1s and counting. The first win of her unbeaten run was the G3 Sunshine Coast Guineas May 16, which she followed with her first Group 1 score in the G1 Queensland Oaks two weeks later. Brought back as a 4-year-old in the G2 Theo Marks S. at Rosehill Sept. 12, Winx won the G1 Epsom H. over this track and trip Oct. 3 and was a dominating victress of the G1 William Hill Cox Plate to wrap up her season. The first-up winner of the G2 Apollo S. going 1400 metres over this track Feb. 13, Winx disposed of her rivals in the G1 Chipping Norton S. over this course-and-distance two weeks later and handled the slight drop back in distance with aplomb when taking Rosehill's 1500-metre G1 George Ryder S. Mar. 19.
After Saturday's win, Bowman echoed Waller's sentiments on the pressure of handling a champion.
“The build-up was really something,” he said. “I can really understand what people that have had other champion racehorses go through when they come to the races, because the expectation is to win and you have so much confidence in the horse and you have confidence in yourself too. But it's still horse racing and anyone that been around knows there are plenty of tales to be told. To rely on a horse like this is just unbelievable.”
Bowman admitted he had concerns during the race.
“I'll be honest, today, it was the first time in any time I have ridden her that halfway through the race I was concerned because of the worn track,” he said. “It's racing on the worst side of soft in my opinion; race 9 today, it's had a fair bit of use. She wasn't overly comfortable in it so the fact that she wasn't comfortable and still produced that finish is something only a horse of champion qualities can do. I'm elated.”
There has been plenty of talk of Winx backing up in next Saturday's A$4 million G1 Queen Elizabeth S., but Waller said, “That's not today's problem. We'll enjoy today and see what happens from here.”
Winx's Brother Wins Opener…
Saturday at Randwick proved a family affair for the progeny of Fairway Thoroughbreds' Vegas Showgirl (NZ) (Al Akbar). Winx's half-brother El Divino (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) backed up his 'TDN Rising Star' maiden-breaking performance at Gosford two weeks ago with a dead-heat win in the G3 Widden Kindergarten S. The Gai Waterhouse-trained El Divino shared the spoils with Godolphin's G2 Silver Slipper winner Astern (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro).
“This is a Group 1 horse,” said Waterhouse. “A really, really exciting colt. It's just his second start and he's already won a black-type race. The horse he fought the finish out with was a short-priced favourite and he just kept going to the line.”
El Divino's full-brother will be offered by Segenhoe Thoroughbreds during the opening session of the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale Tuesday as lot 135.
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