For three long years, they have strived. And failed.

But 10 jockeys will once again front up for world sport’s toughest challenge at Royal Randwick racecourse today — to beat the best racehorse on the planet, the incomparable Winx.

The champion mare is shooting for an Australian record of 26 straight wins in the race named in her honour, the $500,000 Group 1 Winx Stakes.

She has been invincible for so long now, the measuring stick for all other thoroughbreds, not only in Australia but across the globe.

Here is the equine equivalent of Federer and Tiger, of Pavarotti and Dame Joan, of anything or anyone deemed to be the best.

And while the thought of going into battle against her is the most daunting in sport, it won’t stop the riders of her opponents tomorrow trying to plot her downfall.

When Hugh Bowman hops on the great mare in the mounting yard at about 2.50pm today, the other jockeys will take notice. They can’t help it.

“It’s hard not to have a look at her in the yard.

“It’s like going to a football ground and not looking at the things Johnathan Thurston does on the field,” jockey Tye Angland says.

“You don’t ride your race any differently but you know at some stage of the race she’s going to come past you.

“It’s a different feeling when she goes past you because the times she’s gone past me, I’m at my top and Hughie’s just playing with his gears so it’s pretty incredible.”

Two-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy has come closer than anyone to disrupting the famous Winx winning streak.

It was 12 months ago when Winx famously missed the start by four lengths and had to complete mission impossible to run down a slick Foxplay.

McEvoy knew Winx was well behind him with 100m to go and his mount was running the race of her life.

“I was nearly the victor one day. I was excited to know I was still in front with 100m to go and I thought I had her,” McEvoy says.

“You obviously like to know where most of your runners are in a race and it’s the same with Winx.

“She’s always the one we’ve got to beat so you’re mindful of where she is and how it’s unfolding

“She can overcome any sort of scenario and still get her head in front so it’s been a tussle to try to beat her.”

Tommy Berry, too, remembers that day well.

“I rode Inference in the race when she missed the kick and I remember going 100m and looking around and seeing where she was,” he says.

“We came to the 400m and I pulled out on Inference to make my run and she just came past me, with Hughie clicking her up well in hand.

“Any horse that can do that in a Group 1 race … there’s not too much you can say.”

Berry has ridden many great horses such as Designs On Rome, Chautauqua and Vancouver, and admits he’ll feel like he’s in the presence of greatness as he heads out to the Randwick 1400m start when he rides Libran.

“You’re in awe of her when you’re in a race with her,” he says.

“She’s not the best looking horse you’d ever see. She doesn’t blow you away like when you saw So You Think, but you’re still in awe of what she is capable of.”

Berry — who says Winx’s best win was in the 2015 Theo Marks Stakes when she copped a bad check before the straight — says he’s not sure how he would feel if he was the one who ended her winning streak.

“There would probably be mixed feelings because no one ever wants to see a superstar get beaten but I’ll still be happy to win the race.

New kid on the block, former star apprentice Andrew Adkins, says he couldn’t believe he was racing against a legend of the turf so early in his career and that it was amazing to watch her sprint away from a field so quickly.

“Out of the gates it’s all systems go as normal and it stays that way until the 400m when everyone gets stuck into their mount,” Adkins says. “She’s such an incredible horse and when you’re next to her, it’s like watching a hovercraft.

“You do feel a bit helpless when she goes past you.

“I’ve never seen a horse move like that across the turf. You just don’t see that sort of stuff.”

Angland didn’t mind being reminded he was the last jockey to beat Winx, when he piloted Gust Of Wind to victory in the 2015 Australian Oaks at Randwick.

“I’ve beaten her so I’ll keep that feather in my hat but she’s gone past me many times,” he says.

Top jockey Glyn Schofield has been one of the few riders to speak out publicly and say Winx can be beaten.

He said it earlier this week ahead of climbing aboard his mount Kementari today.

And despite Winx’s aura of invincibility, Schofield said last year ahead of the Chipping Norton Stakes that Prized Icon would “pick up the pieces” if the great mare was off her game.

Winx went on to defeat Prized Icon that day by seven lengths.

Schofield walked back to the scales with a wry smile on his face.

“I just got windburn,” he said.