How mighty Winx survived foaling tragedy and serious illness to produce a likely sale topper
With a superstar mum called Winx and a Triple-Crown winning father, a leggy yearling in the heart of the Hunter Valley breeding nursery is tipped to be rewriting horses sales figures at Easter.
She’s bred from heaven, built to race and has spent the first 18 months of her life raised on the succulent pastures of Hunter Valley.
And next week, when she goes through the ring at the Inglis Easter Yearling sale, she could become a record-breaker before she even sees a racetrack.
No one close to the rock star filly they call Princess is willing to put a price on her.
She is the first – and so far only – progeny of Winx, the mighty mare who won 33 in a row, breaking equine hearts at Randwick (four Chipping Norton Stakes, three Queen Elizabeth Stakes and a Doncaster and Epsom), Rosehill (four George Ryder Stakes) and Moonee Valley (four WS Cox Plates). She won 37 over her 43 starts and her final race in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in April 2019 topped out her career earnings at $26,450,00 won in all types of track conditions.
Her sire is the Triple Crown-winning Pierro, who stands at the world-renowned Hunter Valley nursery Coolmore Stud, birthplace of both Winx and now Princess.
Stud owner Tom Magnier could not contain his pride in Coolmore playing its part in what seems like racing history when they head to the Easter sales on April 7-8.
“I think the hype is amazing,” he says. “When she walks into Inglis sales next week, I compare it to going to a Taylor Swift concert in Sydney for racing and sports enthusiasts.
“We obviously were very grateful on the farm that Winx was born and raised here. She had characteristics that are very similar to this filly.
“The older generation remember Phar Lap, but Winx captured a whole new generation of racing fans in Australia. When Winx was racing, or even now, if I walk down the street and ask anybody, ‘Who is Winx?’, everybody could tell you. It’s a special thing about Australia. You made her a superstar.”
The story hasn’t always gone to script with Winx as a broodmare. And that’s why part-owner Peter Tighe bats away criticism that maybe the owners should be holding on to her first foal – a filly at that. He knows the risks with selling: she may never foal another filly, so the Winx female side could stop here. Worse, she may never foal another healthy baby.
Her first birth, when in foal to Australian champion sire I Am Invincible, ended in tragedy.
Tighe remembers the call that changed the lives of him and his fellow owners, wife Patti, Debbie and Paul Kepitis and the family of Richard Treweeke (who died in 2021, aged 90).
Six years of joy on the racetrack and a seemingly carefree pregnancy ended with the foal dead after a rugged birth.
Winx took some time to get over the trauma of the birth and her owners made the very easy decision to skip the next breeding season and give her a year off before trying again.
Once they were happy Winx was herself again, they planned for another mating. But the size of the foal who had died put them off returning to I Am Invincible.
“We knew that the first foal was quite large, which (contributed) to the difficulty during the birth,” Tighe said. “In picking Pierro, we wanted to ensure she didn’t have another difficult birth.
“With Winx being born here at Coolmore, we thought was a great match. And the resulting foal has been exceptional.
“She carries a lot of the attributes of a mother. If you’re an Olympic swimmer, it doesn’t mean your children are going to be Olympic swimmers. And yet we love to think that she’s going to go to the racetrack and burn the grass up and carry on the heritage of the mother. But there’s no guarantees.”
The decision to sell the first foal wasn’t easy, Tighe says.
“We think it’s better to get the bloodlines into the marketplace. That gives the opportunity for the studs to own and breed. And we’re going to continue hopefully have more foals with Winx.”
Tighe wouldn’t hazard a guess at the price. “There’s worldwide interest. We’re actually in uncharted territory. It’s a good coffee table discussion at the moment. Everybody wants to know.”
The Australian record for a yearling stands at $5 million for a Redoute’s Choice half-brother to Black Caviar and All Too Hard (out of Helsinge) sold at the 2013 Inglis Easter Yearling Sales.
The early signs are good for buyers looking for Winx 2.0, says yearling manager William O’Connor, who’s cared for the athletic yearling since June 2023.
“She is very similar to her mum – with the fine brown coat and she has Winx’s attitude.
“But she does seem to enjoy the spotlight. She loves a bit of company but is not too fussy who that might be – she’ll wander up and introduce herself.”
And this blue blood has simple tastes. “She’s happiest just picking fresh grass.”
Tighe also sees mum’s quirks in Princess. “She’s got a mind of her own. And, if she doesn’t want to do something, she’ll let you know.”
“But she’s a very inquisitive foal. On early visits down here, she wasn’t afraid to leave (her mum). And mother would come over and see what everyone else was doing. It was funny, it’s very rare for the foals to leave their mother.”
“She was a gorgeous little thing with a mind of her own. And she’s the spitting image of a mother in looks and features.
“I was standing right beside her when she was born. We drove down from Brisbane and arrived with two hours to spare. It was about 11 o’clock at night. Within 15 minutes of arriving, she started to give birth.
“I remember she stood up very quickly. It was amazing.”
Coolmore boss Magnier backs the filly inheriting Winx’s fighting qualities. He recalls Winx getting seriously sick in the period between her dead foal and successfully mating with Pierro.
“Before she was in foal here, she got very sick. It was a worrying time for the owners – but she’s a tough filly and bounced out of that.
“Full credit to the team that nursed her back to health.”
His faith in Winx didn’t waiver. “There were times when we thought we would lose her. But she’s tough. There was times we maybe thought that we’d never get a foal out of Winx. Credit to the farm staff – the same guy who foaled Winx foaled this filly.”
Magnier wouldn’t guess a price but admits: “I believe records will be broken.
“It’s really like saying how long is a piece of string. There’s only going to be a handful of people who are going to buy her, and you’re going to come down to two people who are going to battle it out.”
Nearby Arrowfield Stud owner John Messara, the man behind sire legend Redoute’s Choice, says every horse is individual” so he too won’t be putting a dollar sign on Princess.
Winx missed getting in foal in the 2023 breeding season when mated with Arrowfield’s champion Snitzel.
Messara, who launched supersire Danehill into Australia with Coolmore, knows what makes a champion – but he’s no help for those bidding on April 8.
“Well, there isn’t a secret, right? Because there are so many variables.
“You’ve got to look at the package that’s in front of you. And every occasion it’s always different, right? But there are some things that some of us look to, you know, we want to get a good balance. And, we want an easy walking horse. We want a good temperament.
“And then of course, you get the pedigree you want.
“Each buyer or each farm has a different set of qualifications. And at the end of the day someone strikes that lucky.”
“I haven’t seen the Winx filly. But I’m excited to be looking forward to it at Easter. And there’s no reason why she wouldn’t attract a huge amount of attention.”
He expects interest from international buyers with the Australian dollar hovering around US65c. “The top end of the market is what interests international buyers. If they come, they will want to buy something special.”
Coolmore sales and marketing’s Tom Moore is bullish ahead of Easter.
“I would say definitely in my seven years here, we’ve never presented a group of horses at a sale which are as good as this batch.
“We took 51 yearlings to the Magic Millions (in January) and sold 50 of them for a total of about $13 million. There’s 38 yearlings going to Inglis – with the Winx filly obviously the highlight. There’s potentially seven or eight horses in there that could make $1 million.”
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch reminds us what dad Pierro brings to the table. “He’s still the highest rated two-year-old in Australia since 1977 and Luskin Star.
“So it’s like it’s a very rare quality that he’s able to win 1200m, 1400m and a mile as a two-year-old in a six-week time frame. He was an incredibly tough racehorse.”
Lot 391 on April 8 means so much more than a pay cheque to Irishman Magnier, a businessman steeped in racing blue blood with Coolmore founder John Magnier his father and legendary trainer Vincent O’Brien his grandfather.
“We had Justify and Winx here last season, and you’re just sitting there going, yeah, you’ve got the greatest horse in America and who’s now probably the greatest stallion in the world. And you have Winx a couple of yards down the line. And you have Pierro, the last Triple Crown-winning winner here. It just gives you goosebumps to know we have Winx on this farm.
“The one thing about the yearling, she just keeps improving. So I think come sales day, I would say she’ll be looking a million dollars.”
The question is just how many millions.
The Inglis Easter Sale runs from April 7-8 at Riverside Stables, Warwick Farm
Garry Ferris spent a day in the Hunter Valley hosted by Inglis Bloodstock
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