Is Winx better than Black Caviar? Who cares? She’s just awesome

IS mare-of-the moment Winx better than Black Caviar? And why isn’t she in the Melbourne Cup?

Whoosh: Hugh Bowman rides Winx to the line to win her second Cox Plate. Picture: Nicole Garmston

THOSE who pay attention to horse racing once a year think there’s a new speedster on the block named Winx.

Truth is, Australia’s reigning queen of the turf was making bold strides long before she blew away the Cox Plate by a record-breaking eight lengths on Saturday.

From the time she was born, the mighty mare was an over-achiever.

Newborn foals by instinct have just two things in mind: get up to avoid predators, and get fed.

It takes most foals 30 minutes to an hour to stand without falling off their rickety legs.

Winx took ten minutes.

A one in one thousand statistic, Sky Racing’s Andrew Bensley tweeted on Saturday.

Now the mare has proved closer to one in a million, (actually more than $9.3 — that’s what she’s amassed in prizemoney) has won 13 times in succession and, after her cool demolition of her rivals in Australia’s premier weight-for-age championship, stands tall alongside Australasian racing’s finest: think Phar Lap, Black Caviar, Kingston Town and Makybe Diva.

Wash that win right out of my hair: Winx gets a shower after her record-breaking win. Picture: Colleen Petch.

WINX VERSUS BLACK CAVIAR

The most recent horse to capture the attention of wider Australian public was a pure speed machine named Black Caviar.

Unbeaten in 25 starts, the now-retired mare who went by the unassuming stable name of Nelly broke lesser horse’s (and all of them were, when they lined up against her) hearts.

With a withering turn of speed that saw her amass prizemoney of $7.953,936 she was, in the end, unbeatable. Even when she should have quit, she didn’t.

Watching her hit full speed was like seeing a turbo-boosted Ferrari. She was unbeaten over distances from 1000m to 1400m. And she wins from in front, last, or the middle of the pack.

She broke her rivals’ hearts.

Winx has now raced 23 times for 17 wins. She began her career as a rookie racehorse with three successive wins. After a glitch in Sydney she headed north to remind form.

But wasn’t until she graduated from playing with the fillies (female horses up to three years old) to weight-for-age with more mature horses that we got a real hint of what was to come.

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Learnt this week that Winx stood up just 10mins after being born. Normally 30mins. Was one in a thousand. Today's effort was again stunning!

— Andrew Bensley (@AndrewBensley) October 22, 2016

As she matured, so did her ability to do things other horses can’t: hit a top cruising speed which is faster than most, and sustain it for longer than any of her rivals.

She hasn’t been beaten since May, 2015. She too, breaks horse’s hearts.

But as a middle-distance specialist (she has won over distances from 1400m to 2200m), she does it for longer than Black Caviar

So is Winx better?

It’s an unfair comparison, say most racing pundits: supreme sprinter versus middle-distance diva, racing in different eras under different conditions.

Black Caviar beat the world at blistering speeds, and never had her colours lowered.

Winx has won only in Australia.

And Winx’s Timerform rating is now 133 — ahead of other greats Makybe Diva and Sunline, and just behind Black Caviar’s 136.

But Black Caviar didn’t win two Cox Plates. And Winx is still racing.

That's one of 25: Black Caviar strolling to victory in the 2011 Newmarket Handicap. Picture: News Corp

SO WHY ISN’T SHE IN THE MELBOURNE CUP?

Because it was never in the plan.

Even if it had been, it’s doubtful connections would want to expose her to Australia’s longest horse race this year.

The 3200m Melbourne Cup is run under handicap conditions. That means runners are weighted according to ability and form: better horses are given heavier weights to carry with the intention all have an equal chance of winning.

Winx races under weight-for-age conditions: assigned set weights decided by her age and sex.

Weight can stop a train. Stick her in a handicap and she would get that, and a lot more, so that lesser horses get a chance.

But that’s all hypothetical, because the Melbourne Cup was never on her dance card.

She was trained to win her second successive Cox Plate. And delivered. In spades.

That said, there’s no reason she couldn’t have a tilt next year, like Australia’s biggest stakes earner, Makybe Diva did in 2005.

Trained for the Melbourne Cup, she breezed through to pick up the Cox Plate as part of her preparation.

Which is part of the reason she retired with winnings of more than $14 million (and three Melbourne Cup wins) in 2005.

Could Winx win a Melbourne Cup?

Plenty of pundits think so, if you made it her mission, and was trained for the longer race.

But it ain’t happening this year.

She’s going for a rest. She’s earned it.

Supreme: Makybe Diva wins the Cox Plate on her way to the 2005 Melbourne Cup. Picture: News Corp.

DOES SHE NEED TO WIN A MELBOURNE CUP?

While the Melbourne Cup captures international attention and the eyes of a nation, the Cox Plate has traditionally been the race Australian trainers most want to win.

It’s the premier weight-for-age race on the calendar, and tends to be won often by horses who are seen again in the winner’s circle — largely exempt from the boilovers of the Melbourne Cup.

“The Cox Plate is still the one every trainer wants to win but the Melbourne Cup is now such an event that captures so much world attention that the emphasis that the emphasis has shift a little bit, but for Australian racing only, the Cox Plate is the purists’s race,” Freedman says.

“The fields Winx beat on Saturday wasn’t the best Cox Plate field I’ve ever seen, but then she clarified that for us by winning by eight lengths.”

Temperamental miss: Sunline wins the Cox Plate in 200. Picture News Corp

GIRLPOWER RULES

It’s “girlpower rules” in horse racing right now.

The top three stakes winners on the Australasian money list are Makybe Diva, New Zealand mare Sunline, and Winx. And Black Caviar has the best Timeform rating.

So Winx is in more than good company.

“For mine there were three great mares of Australian racing: Makybe Diva, Black Caviar and Sunline,” says Freedman. “Now there’s four. The girls are ruling the roost.”

Really good race mares are often quirky, well built, powerful and have attitude that shows through in spades.

Sometimes that attitude translates to temperamental. For Sunline, $11.3 million in prizemoney came at the cost of many chunks of skin for her strapper and trackwork rider Claire Bird. The mare was so famously bad tempered that she regularly bit Claire: her favourite person in the world. A painful kind of love.

Winx has her quirks, but they’re more like those of Makybe Diva.

Makybe Diva loved the adoration of the crowd, and famously stood statue-like on the Flemington track after her Melbourne Cup victory, reins loose, ears pricked, calmly soaking up the accolades she knew were for her.

Freedman says Winx is similar: quirky, not nasty.

“Makybe knew what was going on all the time,” he says.

“Winx definitely knows too. And like all those good racehorse they know what they are there for, and they know where the line is.”

What makes Winx stand out from the rest of the crowd?

“She’s a lovely mare but there’s probably a thousand other Thoroughbred mares that look as good as she does, are as big as she is.

“But she has this amazing capacity to reach that high cruising speed — and it’s fast — and she can maintain it longer than any other horse racing at the moment.

“She can just take off earlier than any other horse, and sustain it longer than any other horse. She just breaks them.”

Nod and a Winx: The champion mare ahead of her Cox Plater record-breaker. Picture: Colleen Petch.

Originally published as Is Winx better than Black Caviar? Who cares? She’s just awesome