Cox Plate 2016: Winx’s amazing talents know no bounds

SUNDAY FIX: CHAMPION mare Winx entered a stratosphere reserved for idols on Saturday and trainer Chris Waller made one thing clear: ‘She’ll be back’.

SHE’ll be back next year ... for No. 3.

It takes mere seconds for the great feats of sport to become timeless.

For a few seconds, at around the 500m, just past a marker point known as “the school,’’ Saturday’s Cox Plate shaped as a re-enactment.

It had been 30 years since Bonecrusher and Waverley Star knocked each other senseless in the greatest Cox Plate ever run.

The long dead but immortal New Zealanders cut loose just before the school. Thirty Cox Plates later, Winx ranged up to Hartnell just beyond it.

The crowd which had endured the many shades of winter for five or six hours — wet, wetter, windy, frigid — warmed to an epic. The crowd made that rumbling noise that comes just before a roar.

It sensed a surge from both champions and for two or three strides, Hartnell rallied.

A few strides later, less than two seconds, the crowd sensed something far more breathtaking.

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FINISHING ORDER: WHAT THE JOCKEYS SAID + RATINGS

REACTION: WHAT THE FANS ARE SAYING ABOUT WINX

WORLD RANKINGS: WINX POISED TO REACH SUMMIT

Winx forged clear turning for home, then galloped into the most magical zone in Cox Plate history.

Chris Waller was knocking about with slow horses at Newcastle and Kembla when Sunline won the Cox Plate by seven lengths in 2000. He may have had a toy horse and a child’s imagination when Dulcify won by the same glorious margin in 1979.

It just doesn’t happen: Winx extends her lead with every stride as she pulverises her rivals in this year’s Cox Plate. Picture: George Salpigtidis

Saturday, Waller hid out the back as Winx began to not just put a space on Hartnell, but create the biggest space in Cox Plate history.

From where he watched, at the “wrong’’ end of the horse tunnel, Waller says he couldn’t hear the most clamorous roar — from one of the smallest, frozen crowds — in recent Cox Plate history.

The seven length margins of Dulcify and Sunline in the race of champions is the signature deed of both their careers. Without it, Dulcify would be remembered but not revered. Sunline’s greatness is measured by that margin, on that day.

When Waller emerged through the tunnel and into the cauldron of the winner’s circle, the gravity of the victory, as Winx and Hugh Bowman slowed to a canter, hit home.

Winx had won the Cox Plate by eight lengths. She had beaten Hartnell, a horse who had been flogging good horses by very big margins, by a colossal space.

Waller shook and his voice choked as he grasped it.

Trainer Chris Waller and Hugh Bowman with the winning trophy. Picture: AAP

He trained a handful of horses when he’d watch Sunline in awe on TV screens at empty country tracks in NSW.

Winx became a champion in this same race a year ago and entered a stratosphere reserved for idols on Saturday.

Waller didn’t know what to say, or how to say it.

“It’s like a dream. Simple as that,’’ he said.

“You never expect to win like that. You’re always expecting the unexpected. But it was always going to take a very good horse to beat us today.’’

Both Waller and Bowman had spent many weeks keeping a lid on their belief that was never going to be a match-race.

Bowman said he had become so confident that he’d begun to worry.

Hugh Bowman and Winx after their history-making day. Picture: Colleen Petch

“I can’t tell you how confident I was before the race. I don’t like to be too confident. That actually started worrying me a little but as I came close to the day,’’ he said.

“But when I got on her today, when we were together … she had just matured so much.’’

The crowd may have sensed “stoush’’ at the school but Bowman was thinking margin.

“My feeling was good,’’ he said of the moment he ranged alongside Hartnell.

“I think James (McDonald on Hartnell) was quite confident but when I started to put the pressure on him, I think there was the realisation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever got to the bottom of her and who knows what she could do if she had something that goes with her.’’

Waller tends to smile sheepishly than grin with cockiness but he also revealed there was almost a sense of destiny in Saturday’s win; not the margin, the victory.

“This morning, it was quite ironic. Hugh comes out of gym, after a sweat and a sauna, and I’m at the other end.

Winx gets some important grooming before her extraordinary victory. Picture: Colleen Petch

“We walked out of the doors at the same time. We just laughed, that it was déjà vu.’’

The déjà vu was not at the gym but at the racetrack.

Winx, like Sunline, has now won two Cox Plates.

Only Kingston Town won three.

Waller absorbed the almost chaotic aftermath of Saturday’s race and wondered out loud what it would be like to win a Melbourne Cup.

The answer was that it would feel nothing like winning a third Cox Plate with Winx.

There might be distractions in the meantime. Royal Ascot is loosely on the cards “but why would you want to go overseas for one race?’’

Asked what was next for possibly the greatest ever Australian racemare, Waller looked around racing’s great amphitheatre and said: “win a third one”.

“This is Australia’s big race. Getting to the other side (of the world) would be good but she’ll be back next year. That’s what we’re in the game for. She was in the zone today and when she’s in the zone she would beat any horse in the world.

“Maybe the world could come to us, if they’re good enough.’’

Hugh Bowman gives his leading lady a kiss. Picture: David Crosling

Sunday Fix

DID YOU SEE/HEAR?

MOANS and groans from punters after two hellish days at the Valley. Seven favourites were beaten on Friday night — including hotpot Chautauqua — and the story continued on Saturday. Until Winx.

A “get the pronunciation right tip’’ from trainer Tony McEvoy before Azazel’s winning debut at the Valley. McEvoy contacted race caller Greg Miles pre-race to confirm her name is pronounced “Azeezel.’’ As Miles quipped on race morning: “They never clarify the pronunciation of slow ones.’’ Azazel bolted in at $5.

SCINTIGRAPHY and an MRI revealed that the lameness to Tarzino that forced his scratching from the Caulfield Cup have now forced his retirement. Connections of the Victoria Derby winner, who struggled to find form this spring, are now looking for a suitable stud.

LOTS of tears from Enver Jusufovic’s staff after patched-up O’Malley swooped to win a minor race at the Valley. “EJ” revealed the horse had two screws inserted in a knee in major surgery that had him sidelined for two years. “He’s a special horse,’’ he said, proving there’s a story in ever winner.

WHAT THE?

THE race-club can bang on all it likes about maximising revenue but staging the Cox Plate as race 17 over the two days put revenue above the race. The club must address the unpalatable stretching of what was once one grand day into two so-so ones. Bottom line is it might make them more money but the people aren’t happy!

PART-OWNER Rupert Legh reckons he’s got to the bottom of Chautauqua’s Manikato Stakes flop. ’”We think he’s lovesick — he’s missing a little Asian filly he was stabled next to in Hong Kong” Legh said.

SATURDAY’S omen tip (given the recent argy-bargy about rapid fire shotguns) misfired at the Valley. Favourite Gun Case ran down the track because his saddle slipped shortly after the start of the second race.

NICE to see Damien Lane stand his ground when pushed by speed map reliant stewards after Kaniana raced further back than stewards had “mapped.’’ “Maybe your speed map is wrong,” re said. Geez, she won. What more do they want?