Winx part-owner Debbie Kepitis on how they bought champion mare and chase for fourth Cox Plate

CHAMPION mare Winx returns to Flemington this Saturday to continue her pursuit of history. Her part-owner Debbie Kepitis reveals her raceday routine, superstitions and why she wears the same outfit.

MANY sports fans dream of owning a racehorse and cheering it on at the track.

Few get to experience the highs of seeing that actually happen.

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But what’s it like to not only have one, but then see that horse go on an unprecedented run to become one of the immortals of the turf?

In the lead-up to Winx’s return to the track in the race named in her honour back in August, SuperRacing caught up with part-owner DEBBIE KEPITIS to talk about the champion mare’s amazing run, how the owners bought her, race day superstitions and the chase for a fourth Cox Plate.

Winx winning the race named in her honour back in August. Picture AFP

SUPERRACING: How are your emotions ahead of Winx’s return this Saturday?

DEBBIE KEPITIS: I’m trying not to think about it too much because the nerves start to build if you ponder too much. Most of it is out of my control. Until you see the field I don’t like to get too concerned. But I’m a realist and I know racing, so anything can happen in a race.

She’s as good as she can be. Hugh (jockey Hugh Bowmen) is happy with her, Chris (trainer Chris Waller) is pleased as punch. It’s a big thing, you’re hopeful, you’re wishing her and willing her to succeed. That’s sort of where I’m at.

SR: How do you settle those pre-race nerves the night before and on race day?

DK: I’m very superstitious so I tend to just stick to my superstitions. I try to keep the day the same and the night before the same. It’s a little bit difficult this week because we’re having an awards ceremony on Thursday, where she’s in line to get one or two awards, so that’s always exciting to celebrate.

I’ll just do my normal (routine) on the Saturday. I’ll get up and get my hair done as I normally do. Put on the suit I wear to every race she races in barring one, which I missed early on. Then I’ll go along to the races. I try to eat but you’re stomach is in knots. You just try to keep yourself as settled as you can. I’m not very talkative. I’m sort of a bit focused.

SR: How does your day usually begin?

DK: I get up and I get ready and head to the hairdressers around 7.25am. I listen to the radio on the way to hear the trainers and scratchings, just to keep up to date with what’s going on. I get back to the car by 8.45am so I can listen to the preview of the last few races. Then I come home and I watch the other races on replay from the radio, so I’m listening to racing when I get up.

SR: Being superstitious, do you eat the same breakfast every Saturday morning?

DK: No, it doesn’t extend to that (laughs). I don’t have to wear the same underwear or anything like that (but) I have to at least wear the same jewellery.

Debbie Kepitis with star trainer Chris Waller. Pic: Getty Images

SR: Why is purple your colour of choice?

DK: Purple is the colour I race in. So my own colours are purple white and black. I find purple a lucky colour.

SR: When you arrive at the track are you approached by lots of people? Do you try to find some time by yourself with your thoughts?

DK: If I walk into people as I’m going in or around the track I stop and talk. I try to keep to myself before her races. I don’t go looking for company but I’m not anti-social.

SR: On Saturday Winx is also out to break Black Caviar’s record for most consecutive wins, what feeling to do think you’ll have if she was to achieve that feat?

DK: I haven’t really thought about that. I’m ecstatic every time she races and when she’s achieved all these wins it’s been just unbelievable. Lately, probably in the last 10 starts, it’s been more relief than anything when she’s crossed the line in first, especially with the hard runs she’s had and the impossible positions she’s put herself in. I don’t know (how I’d feel), I’ll be very excited and be my usual silly self, I would say, if we are lucky enough and fortunate enough for her to do that.

We also have to remember that Black Caviar was unbeaten whereas Winx has been beaten. Black Caviar’s record will never go because she was unbeaten but it was amazing to equal the same consecutive winning run so if there’s a chance or a possibility and everything lines up and we do (break the record), that would be amazing.

Winx owner Debbie Kepitis with jockey Hugh Bowman. Picture: Brett Costello

SR: The plan, obviously, is for Winx to have a tilt at a fourth straight Cox Plate. When did the owners make the decision to chase that piece of history, was it a straightforward one or were there lots of meetings and discussion that took place?

DK: It wasn’t straightforward. It was mainly centred on whether we went to Royal Ascot or not and that decision was made after the George Ryder (in March). After that race we had a meeting and everything was laid out on the line with Chris, Hugh and the three owners. It was a matter of these are the pros, these are the cons, what does everyone feel. And we made a decision then not to take her overseas, to keep racing here and to take every race a race at a time. It’s not been a considered opinion to always go straight to the Cox Plate. It was, if she lines up well and wants to keep racing, that’s the race that we would look at. There’s not a set plan, it is race by race. Especially with her as a seven-year-old, you’ve got to respect the horse and that’s what we do. We don’t go counting our chickens until she shows us they’re going to hatch.

SR: Going back to the beginning, how did you and the other owners find Winx?

DK: It was the Magic Millions sale (in 2013), which Peter and I normally go to. I normally buy horses at Magic Millions and I have a bloodstock agent, Guy Mulcaster. He does the prelim list for me and then I look at the horses and I narrow it down to what I’m looking at for that year. That year I was looking at a variety of horses but Peter (Tighe) and I and Richard (Treweeke) had decided to race a horse together. I had my list of ones I was interested in and then Peter and I talked, and Richard had left it in our control. As long as Chris Waller would be happy with the horse, it was up to Peter and I.

I had a list, Peter had a list and we looked at what we’re interested in. We narrowed it down to five that we thought would work in the partnership and we had a budget and we started (the search) at Magic Millions. In the first day, when you usually like to try and buy because they’re usually the better price, easier to purchase, we were blown out by our budget. We were never going to get any on our list.

So we rethought that and then the next day we just went about it. We didn’t isolate her as the horse we had to have. It was a matter of we had five we thought were all right and we liked. And through osmosis we came to her and we decided we’ll go for her, went over our budget but we decided to keep going on her because we did like her, and we got her (Winx was bought for $230,000). It wasn’t that any of us had picked her out as the best horse in the sale, it was a matter of she was on our list, she ticked all our boxes, she passed all the criteria and we were more than happy to acquire her. And as it turned out we were very lucky to have acquired her.

Hugh Bowman hugs an emotional Debbie Kepitis after her Turnbull Stakes win last year. Pic: Getty Images

SR: Being actively involved in the process of finding and buying racehorses, what are the characteristics you are looking for?

DK: I by no means profess to be a good judge at all but I have quirks that I like. I’m a woman and I like things in a woman’s way. Guy does the prelim, so I know I’m getting a horse that’s conformed well, has good credentials and looks athletic and has a good walk, so I don’t have to go through all those, they’re all done for me. Then I like to look at them. I look at between 15 and 20 at a sale. It doesn’t matter how many I’m buying, I still like to look at a cross-section of horses and then I eliminate them through certain things.

Primarily, I prefer a bay horse but Guy doesn’t discount them because of the colour. I will buy chestnuts but primarily I like bay. I don’t like a lot of white but if I have white it has to be equal white, so there has to be either two feet or four feet, not one. I don’t mind colour on their face. I like to walk up to the horse, the horse has to be friendly and then I also like to look at the eye of the horse. When I walk up to them and they look at you, I like that. So, just quirky little, woman things. And then I like them to have a good backside.

SR: How did Winx get her name?

DK: Richard, the third partner in the trio, he enjoys finding lots of names. So what we do when we race in partnerships, it’s up to everybody to put names on to a list and we work out what ones are available and what ones aren’t. Richard was very prolific with Winx, he came up with 20 to 25 names but found there were only about four or five that were available. Richard, of course, was happy with any of those because he came up with them, and Peter and I and Patty (Peter’s wife) and my husband Paul, we sat down and chatted about them all and we liked Winx because it was nice and short and distinctive.

Debbie Kepitis with AFL stars Max Gawn and Tom Lynch in front on a Winx mural. Picture: David Caird

SR: How long have you owned horses, who do you usually own them with, and have there been other stars along the way?

DK: I come from a family that have raced horses, my uncle and dad (Jack and Bob Ingham) started when they were in their 20s. I’ve been around horse racing for a long time. I’ve actually been in ownership of horses since around 2000. In my own right, purchasing myself, other than in syndicates, that started in 2006 or 2007.

To start with, I mainly raced with my siblings and my husband. We had horses with my mum and dad and my two brothers, sister and my husband and I and their wives, so we had a little family syndicate. Then when I started to purchase I raced them with my husband and three daughters.

When we really got the passion ourselves I went into a few syndicate horses with Chris Waller. Now I’ve got my own syndicate with my daughters and husband called Woppitt Bloodstock and we race horses primarily with that syndicate.

I’ve been involved with my dad and my uncle Jack. On my own, I went into a horse called Amicus, she won me my first Group 1. She was actually bought at the same sale as Winx and I raced her with a bunch of Chris’s good clients, some of them are friends as well. Also that year we went off to Karaka, and Chris had come up with a formula where he was going to buy a pack of staying horses to target the classic races in Australia and it was the last year of the larger crop of Zabeels. We were lucky enough to get a nice pack of horses, I think there were six or seven that we purchased and out of that, every one of them bar one, won races. But a good one came of that called Preferment, who we’re standing him in New Zealand with a syndicate over there. With my siblings we also raced a horse called Japonisme and Catkins, they were both two good horses.

SR: So it would have been really easy to catch the racing bug growing up?

DK: Absolutely. My dad Bob was more into the trotters when we were very young and we used to do a lot with those on Sundays, gymkhanas and that sort of thing. The racing bug started to hit in my 20s and we went along to quite a few races but the bug really infested me when dad set up Woodlands (Stud) and I was seeing a lot of horses born and watching them and I just got caught up in them. The passion developed, and it’s easy. It’s not easy to do but it’s easy to get the passion (laughs).

SR: What other interests do you have away from racing?

DK: Pretty much that takes up most of my time at the moment. I’m part of my family development company, which is a huge learning curve, so I’m thoroughly enjoying doing that. And I’m a grandmother, and that’s a huge priority.

Debbie Kepitis with fellow Winx co-owner Patty Tighe — and Go Winx flags. Picture: Kylie Else

SR: Owning Winx, have you found that you are more recognisable and people come up to you on the street out of nowhere just to say hello?

DK: Yeah they do. They don’t necessarily come up from the street completely at random but around race time, yes, I get a lot of people say “Hi, Mrs Winx” and “she’s fantastic” and it’s wonderful. The horse is so well loved, the people just want to say hello because they want a connection with the horse. Yes, it’s lovely.

SR: Has Winx changed your life? Is it possible for a racehorse to have such an effect?

DK: The way that she’s changed my life is she has made me realise you can believe in dreams, the unthinkable can happen. I’ve got such a lot of acquaintances through her and met a lot of people from all over the world. She’s opened my friendship group completely, which is a lovely side effect.

SR: What has been your most memorable experience on the racetrack?

DK: Winx is the most memorable experience. Every time she runs is memorable. I find it very hard to narrow one performance. They’re all very good performances. They’re all absolutely stimulating, exciting and amazing. If you had to single them out I couldn’t pick one but I can pick different ones for different reasons. Her first Cox Plate was very wonderful for me because that was 20 years after my dad had won a Cox Plate and I know how hard they are to win, so that was a huge achievement.

The Doncaster (in 2016), when she almost got knocked down, almost went down on her head, and won, that really gave you tingles because you couldn’t believe she was going to do it. And when she missed the start by four lengths (in the same race last year) and came from behind, her grit and determination and her unbelievable will to win got her home. They’re so inspiring. I could probably go on and on and name at least 18 of the 25 (wins).

Debbie Kepitis with Winx after her 2017 Cox Plate success. Pic: AAP

SR: Win or lose the Cox Plate, what will be next for Winx?

DK: Look, she has to get to the Cox Plate first. She is racing on Saturday, we know that for sure. There are no signs at the moment to say she won’t be racing on. But win, lose or draw the Cox Plate, whatever the horse says she wants to do, she will do. If she runs up until the Cox Plate and does that, she may show she still wants to race. We will always give her the opportunity to tell us what she wants to do. Peter Moody is renowned for saying that a mare will tell you. Black Caviar told him when she had enough. We are waiting for Winx to let us know. Any sign at all that she’s had enough, she’ll be retired and sent to stud. And she can do what she likes at stud. If we’re lucky enough to get a couple of good foals, that will be brilliant.