The Championships 2016: History beckons for Winx, Tarzino

POLL: RATING experts and punters are backing Winx and Tarzino to claim a slice of history in The Championships opener at Randwick on Saturday.

Trainer Mick Price's horse Tarzino goes for a swim with the strapper at Randwick stables today. Picture: Adam Taylor

RATING experts and punters are backing Winx and Tarzino to claim a slice of history in The Championships opener at Randwick on Saturday.

Winx is aiming to break hoodoos that extend back to Hall of Famers Super Impose and Tobin Bronze when she runs the short-priced pick in the Doncaster Mile.

Tarzino is trying to achieve what only Dulcify and the extraordinarily versatile Mahogany have done since the Australian Derby was switched to the autumn in 1979.

After Tuesday’s barrier draws, the pair both went up around the $2 mark.

Winx was a dominant winner of last year’s Epsom and will become the first horse since Super Impose (1991-92) to claim Randwick’s two biggest miles in the same season if she is successful on Saturday.

She also is trying to become the first Cox Plate winner since Tobin Bronze (1966-67) to win the Doncaster in the same season.

Winx has become such hot property that the ATC has convened a special press conference with trainer Chris Waller at Rosehill early this morning, when she will gallop and then be available for photographs for a short time.

A comparison with the great Sunline suggests Winx is weighted to win the Doncaster with 56.5kg. In her four-year-old season, Sunline, with 57.5kg on her back, was gunned down by Over (51.5kg) in the Doncaster.

To that point, she had won the Cox Plate, Coolmore Classic and three Group 2 races for the season.

Winx is an odds-on favourite to win the Doncaster Mile. Picture: Jenny Evans

Sunline’s weight represented 8kg over the limit. With 56.5kg, Winx has 1kg less than Sunline and is only 6.5kg over the limit after winning four Group 1 races this term.

While she is well in on that scale, it is still a task that has seen many good four-year-olds come up short. Lonhro ($2.10 favourite) wilted under 57.5kg in his Doncaster bid, while the heavy track put paid to More Joyous ($3 favourite with 57kg) in 2011.

Craig Newitt is tipping Tarzino, who has earned the nickname of T-Rex for his habit of biting stable staff, to join Dulcify and Mahogany when he becomes the 20th Victoria Derby winner to contest the ATC equivalent since its shift to the autumn on Saturday.

Seventeen others have failed since 1979, including Blackfriars and Preferment, who both were beaten favourites at Randwick.

Newitt said this week he could not envisage Tarzino being beaten.

“I just know how good he is and from what I’ve seen he’s got the measure of pretty much everything in that race,” he said.

Originally published as The Championships 2016: History beckons for Winx, Tarzino