Winx first race start and win at Warwick Farm; champ enjoying life on farm
The anniversary of Winx’s first race went by almost unnoticed recently, but as the champ prepares to become a mum, her owners and trainer Chris Waller reflect on their first impressions of the budding star.
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Anything to do with Winx is still big news – even the race debut of the mighty mare’s little sister.
Covent Gardens will bring the Winx team of trainer Chris Waller and jockey Hugh Bowman together again when she races at Warwick Farm on Monday.
Winx, arguably the greatest of them all, has been retired for over a year now and is in foal to I Am Invincible. She is due to become a mum for the first time during the spring.
Whether Covent Gardens can run fast or not is sort of irrelevant. Being so closely related to Winx means the filly’s future is made. She is already an invaluable potential broodmare.
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Coincidentally, Covent Gardens goes to the races for the first time almost six years to the day when Winx had her first start, also at Warwick Farm.
The anniversary of Winx’s first race – a win at Warwick Farm on June 4, 2014 – went by almost unnoticed last week. But it piqued the interest of my The Sunday Telegraph sports editor, Garry Ferris, who wanted to know all about Winx’s first start and how the champion mare was doing in retirement. As I wrote, anything about her is still news.
So, I spoke to Waller and owners, Debbie Kepitis, and Peter Tighe, about their memories of Winx’s first race – and they revealed there wasn’t much confidence in the camp!
“We had another horse in the race and I thought that horse would win,’’ Waller said.
“I expected Winx to run a nice race as I felt she had enough ability to be competitive in the city at her first start. I remember after the race thinking the stablemate was disappointing but this Winx looks like she goes okay.’’
Tighe, a Brisbane-based businessman, decided not to fly down for Winx’s debut.
“I remember her first start very well – we didn’t think Winx could win,’’ Tighe said.
“During the race, she looked to be travelling well and on the turn I thought she might get a place and then half-way up the straight it was all over. It was a pleasant surprise.
“But there was no big expectations after that race. We were just happy to get a win.
“If you can win first-up, you are already in front because it’s hard to win a race anywhere.’’
Waller sends emails to his owners after his horses race and Kepitis still has the first email from her trainer after Winx’s debut win. It reads: “We have a very nice filly on our hands and there will be plenty of fun to be had with her.’’
Wasn’t that an understatement!
Waller then gave Winx her chance in a Saturday class race towards the end of her two-year-old season and the filly won again. She was on her way.
“It’s no easy feat to win your first two starts so I thought we had a promising filly after her second win,’’ Waller said. “The owners had paid $230,000 for a nice filly and I was just trying to get their money back.’’
But Kepitis was daring to dream. Her father, Bob Ingham, has raced many champions over the decades including Octagonal and Lonhro but she had never raced a Group 1 winner in her name.
“We hoped Winx would win us our ‘missing’ Group 1,’’ Kepitis said.
“Winx showed she had the potential but we actually won Group 1 races with Amicus (Thousand Guineas) and Preferment (Victoria Derby) in the 2014 spring carnival before Winx won her first Group 1 in the Queensland Oaks the following year.’’
Waller, Tighe, Kepitis and their other part-owner, Richard Treweeke, could never have imagined what was to follow over the next five years.
When Winx was retired after winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick last year, she had won 37 of her 43 starts, including her final 33 races in succession. She won a world record 25 Group 1 races and also earned $26.4 million prizemoney, also a world record.
In recent months, Winx’s trainer and owners have had opportunity to reflect on the mare’s five years of racetrack dominance. Her entire race career is a highlight reel.
“Interestingly, I listened to most of her races while I was doing some exercise over a week or so,’’ Waller said. “Each racecaller was amazing how they made her wins so exciting.’’
Tighe said the COVID-19 situation has meant he has spent plenty of time at home to reminisce about Winx’s career.
“I’ve gone through all her videos, tidied them up and put them in sequence. Patty and I have really enjoyed watching her races again,’’ Tighe said. Waller still finds himself waking up some nights and thinking about how Winx has changed his life.
“I remember going to the Cox Plate last year, that was quite difficult,’’ he said.
“It was our first spring without her so I purposely only turned up before my race. I just didn’t think I needed to be there
“We have seen some good horses race over the last 12 months or so and some have put three or four wins in a row but then lose a race.
“It just shows how hard it is to keep those winning streaks going. Really, it is nearly impossible and just shows that Black Caviar (unbeaten in 25 races) and Winx were superstars.’’
Champ enjoying quiet life
Winx spends her days roaming a lush paddock in the Hunter Valley in the countdown to the birth of her first foal.
“She couldn’t be any better, she’s healthy and happy and is in a paddock with three other pregnant mares,’’ part-owner Peter Tighe said. “They are all first-timers, too. It’s like a little mother’s group.’’
Mighty mare Winx is in foal to I Am Invincible and is due to give birth in October. The owners won’t make any decision on whether they retain Winx’s first foal to race until after the birth.
“Obviously, it would be great to race Winx’s progeny and have Chris (Waller) train them but that is a decision the three of us will make in time,’’ Debbie Kepitis said.
Winx defied the odds time and again to maintain her remarkable 33-race winning streak during her career on the track but what are the chances of her producing a topliner at stud?
Since the Australian Horse of the Year awards were introduced in 1969, 14 mares have won the title: Leilani, Surround, Maybe Mahal, Rose Of Kingston, Bounding Away, Emancipation, Research, Let’s Elope, Sunline, Makybe Diva, Miss Andretti, Typhoon Tracy, Black Caviar and Winx.
Rose Of Kingston remains the only Horse of the Year-winning mare to produce a Group 1 winner at stud, foaling the 1990 Melbourne Cup hero Kingston Rule.
But many champion mares do well at stud. A century ago, one of the greatest of all, Wakeful, also made her mark at stud producing Melbourne Cup winner Night Watch and top sprinter Blairgour (Futurity Stakes, Oakleigh Plate).
Flight, another mighty mare of yesteryear, was an abject failure at stud but the only filly she foaled, later named Flight’s Daughter, was the dam of two champions, Sky High and Skyline.
Chicquita was a wonderful race mare, winning the Edward Manifold Stakes, Thousand Guineas, Wakeful Stakes and Victoria Oaks in 1949, before becoming an outstanding weight-for-age performer as an older mare and finishing second to Comic Court in the 1950 Melbourne Cup.
A mating between Coming Court and Chicquita produced Comicquita, who ran second in the 1962 Melbourne Cup. Chicquita was also the dam of 1964 Golden Slipper winner Eskimo Prince.
Champion Kiwi Horlicks, winner of the 1990 Japan Cup, was the dam of 2000 Melbourne Cup winner Brew, and the outstanding Romanee Conti produced 2001 Caulfield and Melbourne cups heroine Ethereal.
Originally published as Winx first race start and win at Warwick Farm; champ enjoying life on farm