For almost four years
Winx has been unbeatable. She has set new marks for group 1 victories and a winning streak that has the majority believing another
Apollo Stakes success is a formality at Randwick on Saturday.
The numbers slide off the tongue with ease: 29 straight wins, 22 at group 1 level, more than $22 million in stakes. They are all records, as is her four Cox Plates – the most recent achieved at her last start back in October.
When Winx steps onto a racecourse the world is watching these days. There aren’t many horses that win 10 races, let alone 20 or 30 races, in total. She has won 33, the majority against the best horses in
Australia.
With that comes a following and a profile only a champion achieves.
She has became the flagbearer of the sport in its biggest stable. Winx will be the reason why there are more than 15,000 heading to Randwick on Saturday.
But to give a baseline on her success, Waller, who has dominated racing for the past decade, has only had a dozen horses win 10 or more races in their careers. If Winx wins the Apollo, she will double the next best, Catkins, which won 16 times.
In terms of prizemoney, Winx has won more than five times that of any Waller’s runner. The next best is dual Doncaster winner Scared Falls. Winx has won $7 million more than the next-highest earner, the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Redzel.
Waller is always looking for signs that Winx has had enough but can’t find that, so she starts a farewell campaign.
“We’ve only got one thing to worry about and that’s Winx being her same dominant self,” Waller said. “She’s rated the best horse in the latest Longines awards and, if she maintains that for the next few runs, she won’t have any problems.
“The closer we get to raceday, the better I feel because there’s no change. She’s still working extremely well, and her body language is telling us she’s enjoying what she’s doing and that’s all we have to worry about.”
Winx's jockey, Hugh Bowman, admits that the shorter course of 1400m is a tough challenge for her.
“The first-up race I always look to as a stepping stone for the rest of her preparation,” Bowman said. “There is that slight element of wondering how she’s going to go when she does get under the race conditions, but all the signs she’s shown us are that she’s ready to go.
"The 1400m is her most vulnerable distance. It’s the only distance that you feel at some point of the race she at her top already. That's a small feeling I get.
"But then you look at the end of the races, after she's been off the bit at the 600m mark, the rest of the field are pancaked at the 100m and she is just hopping into third and fourth gear at the line."
Most wins for Chris WallerWINX 33
CATKINS 16
RED TRACER 15
RELIGIFY 12
INDEX LINKED 12
MORIARTY 11
Most Prizemoney for Chris WallerWINX $22,854,920
SACRED FALLS $4,400,300
WHO SHOT THEBARMAN $4,199,425
PREFERMENT $3,432,730
BOBAN $2,729,850
ROYAL DESCENT $2,679,780