Quinceañera: The story behind name chosen by Debbie Kepitis for $10m Winx filly

Debbie Kepitis reveals to Racenet’s Ray Thomas the ‘hours of research’ that went into deciding on a name for her $10 million Winx filly … and why she ultimately chose ‘Quinceañera’.

Debbie Kepitis bursts into tears as she successfully bids $10 million for Winx's filly at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year. Pictures: File

Debbie Kepitis has come up with an inspired choice of name for her $10 million Winx filly – Quinceañera.

The two-year-old filly’s name is derived from a Latin American tradition that also spawned a famous animated television series.

Mrs Kepitis wrote on social media that Quinceanera’s name is a “Latin American celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, marking her passages from girlhood to womanhood, this young lady is stepping out of the shadow of her mum, Winx.’’

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The owner-breeder told Racenet that both she and her family had spent many hours “researching and Googling” possible names for the two-year-old filly.

“A lot of names we considered were already taken,’’ she explained.

“Because Winx is a one word name we wanted her filly to have a one word name, too.

“Then one day, we came across Quinceañera and the more we looked at it, the more we liked it.’’

Mrs Kepitis revealed that in the “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” animated television series, a “cute-ceañera” is a celebration for ponies who have earned their “cutie marks” or a unique symbol that is on one or both sides of their flanks.

“The name is a play on the Latin American tradition of a ‘quinceañera’,’’ she said.

Introducing Quinceañera (Pierro/Winx)💜
Named after the Latin American celebration of a girl's 15th birthday, marking her passage from girlhood to womanhood, this young lady is stepping out of the shadow of her mum Winx.
Merry Christmas from ‘Quinnie’ 🎄@[e-mail]/5l7ePR3ACG

— Woppitt Bloodstock (@WoppittB) December 24, 2024

• Winx’s grave fight: ‘It was a rollercoaster, same as her racing career’

Quinceañera – pronounced “Kin-cea-neara” – created headlines around the racing world earlier this year when Mrs Kepitis went to $10 million to buy back the filly at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.

Mrs Kepitis had initially been prepared to sell Winx’s first live foal by Coolmore’s champion sire Pierro but in the days leading up to the sale, she had a change of heart.

“We put the filly up for auction but in the last few weeks, all of my family, we started to miss our ‘daughter, granddaughter’, so we just decided if we could get her, we would,’’ Kepitis said earlier this year.

There were essentially only two buyers – Mrs Kepitis, who was sitting with her family at a table inside the Inglis sale complex auditorium, and American John Stewart, bidding by phone from a restaurant in Kentucky.

Bidding started at $2 million and quickly increased until Mrs Kepitis called out $10 million and the auctioneer’s gavel came down.

Mrs Kepitis burst into tears at that moment, the emotion and enormity of the moment overwhelmed her.

Debbie Kepitis reacts as she buys the Pierro-Winx filly for $10 million. Picture: File

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“I don’t know what I was thinking – stress, anticipation, doubt, every emotion you could think of really,’’ Kepitis said.

“I will never forget it when the gavel came down but mainly it was a feeling of relief.

“Relief because we knew the filly was staying with us but it took a lot of determination to go to the amount we knew we may have to go to.

“You are never prepared to spend that amount of money and yes we may have stretched ourselves more than we wanted to but she just tore at our heart strings.’’

Quinceañera is now in the Rosehill stables of Chris Waller, trainer of the mighty Winx, and is being prepared for a race debut later in the season.

Winx, who won 37 of her 43 races including a world record 25 at Group 1 level, nearly died after losing her first foal by I Am Invincible in 2020.

But Winx then got in foal to Pierro and her filly was born in October, two years ago.

Winx gave birth to a colt by Arrowfield’s super sire Snitzel last month.