By the numbers: 29 things you may not know about Winx
CHAMPION Winx has made a habit of breaking records and notching wins, but how well do you know the mighty mare? Her numbers are remarkable.
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Champion mare Winx has made a habit of breaking records and notching wins, but how well do you know the mighty mare? Her numbers are remarkable.
1. WHICH HORSE DID WINX BEAT AT HER FIRST START?
Felines — Winx sprinted past Felines near the line to win on debut at Warwick Farm over 1100m on June 4, 2014.
2. WINX’S AVERAGE WINNING MARGINS
2.6 lengths — She has won 33 races so far at an average winning margin of 2.6 lengths per race.
3. HER ACCUMULATED WINNING MARGINS
86 lengths from her 33 career wins.
4. HER BIGGEST WINNING MARGIN
Eight lengths — this was the gap Winx opened up on the 2016 Cox Plate field.
5. WINX’S CAREER EARNINGS
$22,934,924 — Winx is No.1 on the all-time Australian prizemoney list.
6. AVERAGE PRIZEMONEY PER RACE
$523,287 — on average for every one of her 38 starts.
7. DISTANCE RANGE
1100m-2200m — Winx has won races over a wide distance range including her debut 1100m win and up to 2200m of the Queensland Oaks.
8. BEST DISTANCE
1600m — Winx has raced over the “mile” 11 times for 10 wins and a second.
9. BEST TRACK
Royal Randwick — 21 races, 17 wins, three seconds.
10. HOW HIGH
16.1 hands — Winx is average height for a thoroughbred.
11. WEIGHT
530kg — Winx was lightly framed but she has developed considerably in the past two years and is now powerful and muscular.
13. WINX’S GROUP 1 RECORD
Winx has won 22 majors, well clear of the next best in Black Caviar (15) and Kingston Town (14) among the leading Group 1 race winners.
14. WHO HAS BEATEN WINX MOST?
First Seal. The John Thompson-trained First Seal finished ahead of Winx in their first five clashes. Winx won the final two meetings.
15. HOW MANY JOCKEYS HAVE WON ON WINX?
Five. Jason Collett rode Winx to wins at her first two starts; Tommy Berry, Larry Cassidy and James McDonald have each won a race on her; while regular rider Hugh Bowman has partnered the mighty mare in 29 races for 28 wins. Only one of the six jockeys to have ridden her in a race has failed to salute. That jockey is Joao Moreira, widely regarded as the world’s best.
17. WHAT DID SHE COST AS A YEARLING?
Winx was sold by breeder John Camilleri for $230,000 at Lot 329 at the 2013 Magic Millions Yearling Sales on the Gold Coast.
18. WHAT DOES THE M MEAN IN HER RACING SILKS?
Winx’s jockeys wear the colours of owner Peter Tighe and the “M” stands for his Magic Bloodstock Racing ownership name. Tighe shares the ownership of the mare with Debbie Kepitis and Richard Treweeke.
19. WHICH HORSE IS THE “BIGGEST LOSER” TO WINX?
Hartnell — he has been beaten by Winx in seven races. In four of those races, Hartnell has run second to Winx — Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Cox Plate, Apollo Stakes and Warwick Stakes — which cost his connections another $3,305,700 in prizemoney.
20. UNBEATEN STREAKS
Winx has won 28 on the trot, the most race victories in succession in Australian racing after she surpassed the unbeaten Black Caviar (25 wins). The world record belongs to Hungarian mare Kincsem, who won all of her 54 races back in the 1870s.
21. CLASS APART
Kingston Town and Winx were the only horses to have won Australia’s weight-for-age championship, the Cox Plate, three times — until Winx added her fourth on Saturday.
23. TAB ODDS
Winx jumped at $4.20 to win the 2015 Cox Plate, was $1.80 in 2016, $1.18 in 2017, and $1.25 this year.
24. WORLD’S BEST
The super-mare has been the world’s top-ranked turf horse in each of the past three years and continues to hold that mantle.
25. RARE HONOUR
In 2017 she was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, only the third horse to earn this honour — after Sunline and Black Caviar — while still in training.
26. MY RACE
The Warwick Stakes, which Winx won in both 2016 and 2017, was renamed in her honour in October last year. Winx won the Group 1 event on August 18 this year to become only the second horse in history to win a race named in its honour.
27. GOT ’EM LICKED
On August 18, 2018, Australia Post announced the release of a stamp issue in Winx’s honour, including a 26-stamp pack commemorating each race as her streak then stood.
28. SHE LOVES MELBOURNE
Winx is unbeaten in seven starts in Victoria — four at The Valley, two at Flemington and one at Caulfield.
29. NAME DROPPER
The offspring of Vegas Showgirl, Winx’s name comes from 1970s and ’80s Las Vegas burlesque shows when the men in the front row would wink at the exotic dancers.
WHY WINX IS THE GREATEST
TO COMMEMORATE Winx’s historic fourth Cox Plate victory we have listed the top 10 reasons as to why the champion mare is unstoppable and at the height of her powers.
With her extraordinary winning sequence — at 29 — now stretching well beyond three years, we’ve attempted to highlight the key factors behind her remarkable consistency and longevity.
1. Her competitive nature. Like all elite athletes, her incredible will to win is unparalleled. When she sees ‘the bunny’ (leader) and there is always one with her style of racing, her instinctive nature to win drives her to crazy closing speeds. Trainer Chris Waller says: “It’s as if she wants to be a winner.”
2. Closing speed. Winx has the rare, stamina-sapping ability to quicken and maintain her acceleration to the end of a race, while her rivals are tiring.
3. Her legs go faster. Winx’s stride and, to be more precise, the frequency of her stride are what give her a distinctive edge. Her stride is slightly longer than average racehorse but it’s the extra 30 strides a minute where she does the damage. Winx has about 170 strides per minute — compared to an average racehorse’s 140 per minute — allowing her to sustain top speed for longer.
4. Her ability to cope with the exacting demands of top-level racing set her alone. Waller says Winx is unlike any horse he had trained in the way she can hold her condition. “Almost every horse at the start of the preparation will lose 10kg and put some of it back on but not all of it. She will stay the same weight.”
5. Respect for the horse. This probably slots in much higher, but trainer Chris Waller and his staff, jockey Hugh Bowman and the owners have done an incredible job with management of the champion. They’ve taken it one race at a time, especially in the past 12 months and now that she is a seven-year-old. Waller always reminds us that while “she’s a happy horse and enjoying her racing” the status quo will continue.
6. The three musketeers. The trainer. The jockey. The strapper. Trainer Chris Waller has been instrumental in the great mare’s continued excellence at the highest level. Carefully mapping out her campaigns, his meticulous and patient approach has left nothing to chance and it has paid off handsomely. Strapper Umut Odemislioglu knows all of Winx’s idiosyncrasies. You could argue even more than Waller. Always at her side, he is Waller’s first port of call for updates on the mare’s mental and physical state. Then there is jockey Hugh Bowman, the pilot. Some might argue it’s just ‘press-button stuff’ when you’re at the steering wheel with Winx, but Bowman has built up a tremendous relationship. All racehorses have certain quirks and mannerisms that are not solved overnight, sometimes never. Winx would be no different, yet history now shows a considerably smoother ride than most.
7. The owners — Peter Tighe, Debbie Kepitis and Richard Treweeke — which make up Magic Bloodstock Racing have allowed Chris Waller and his crew plenty of rein in relation to the great mare’s programming and respective goals. This intelligent, balanced approach has seen their partnership blossom and reap the rewards. Reflecting this is a world record 21 Group 1s.
8. Versatility. Winx has won over a wide distance range (1100m-2200m), including her debut 1100m win and up to 2200m of the Queensland Oaks. Her most successful distance is the mile, but you could argue her best distance is 2000 and above where she has inflicted some of her heaviest defeats.
9. Warding off all evils. Part-owner Debbie Kepitis, like many racing people, is superstitious and does her bit to keep the racing gods happy. She has worn the same outfit almost every time Winx has won. “I’ve got very good dry cleaners … but I’m a realist and I know racing, so anything can happen in a race.”
10. Winx has big shoulders. Carries the weight of a nation on her back every time she walks on to a racetrack these days. Don’t think there is a single individual in sport at the moment bigger than Winx and come 5pm the nation will be again transfixed on the mighty mare in her pursuit of a fourth consecutive Cox Plate victory.
WINX THE MAGNFICIENT
Age/sex: Seven-year-old mare
Height: 16.1 hands
Weight: 530kg
Race record: 39: 33-3-0 starts (29 wins in a row)
Group 1 wins: 22 (world record)
Prizemoney: $22,934,924 (Heads the all-time list in Australia)
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