As the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics started a few days ago, I quickly lost interest following the opening ceremony. I wish all of the athletes luck in pursuit of their Olympic dreams but the featured sports are just not, “The Sport of Kings”. I’ve never been to the Olympics and I am good with that. The closest I have ever been to anything Olympic was this street art when I visited Sydney in September of 2011. All the while, when I was checking out koalas and joeys, my favorite thing about Australia was foaling and I didn’t even know it. Winx was born on 9/14/11 and racing has never been the same for Sydney or the world. Winx is my favorite Olympian of the Outback!
Winx is a 6 year-old bay turf mare sired by Street Cry. Her dam was Vegas Showgirl. Winx was bred in Australia by Fairway Thoroughbreds. She is owned by a racing partnership who got very lucky when they went in together to buy her. Listed as, “Magic Bloodstock Racing, R G Treweeke and D N Kepetis”, the group consists of 4 members, Peter and Patty Tighe, Robert Treweeke and Debbie Kepetis. Winx is trained by Chris Waller and her current jockey is Hugh Bowman.
What is so wonderful about Winx? Well, for one thing she is on a 22 race winning streak and all of these races were Grouped (equivalent to Graded) Stakes. For comparison, the record of 56 straight wins belongs to Camarero.
Another great thing about Winx is her acceleration and her rapid, rather than long stride. Winx runs at an alternating pace and can make her strides faster than the average Thoroughbred.
Also, Winx wins even when she has a bad break from the gate or when she is multiple lengths behind. She is the kind of horse that holds the element of surprise in a race. Just when you think her streak is over she takes off and finishes with the lead. Winx has only seen defeat 6 times and she put that all behind her in the Spring of 2015.
Winx has won so many fine races it would be overwhelming to list them all. She recently won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and her third consecutive Cox Plate.
Furthermore, there are all of the awards and honors that have been bestowed upon Winx. In her homeland she is the 2 time Australian Horse of the Year, the 2 time Australian Champion Middle Distance Racehorse, she was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and she has a Group 1 stakes named for her, the Winx Stakes. Globally, she is the highest rated turf horse in the world for 2 years straight and second overall according to Longines World’s Best Racehorse by ranking. Winx was 3rd per Longines in 2016. Arrogate took first rank from Longines in 2017.
Don’t forget the money! Winx is the richest horse in Australian history. She has raked in $15.63 million AUD! Today’s conversion rate has that as over $12 million in U.S. dollars.
Fortunately, Winx isn’t stopping anytime soon. Her jockey, Bowman, recently was penalized for careless riding so he is not capable of riding Winx in a race until 2/22/18. (For educational purposes, careless riding in this instance describes Bowman shifting into the path of another racehorse while there was not sufficient clearance.) Winx was to race in the Group 2 Apollo Stakes at Randwick this coming Saturday, 2/17/18 following the 3rd race, posting at 2:35 P.M. AEDT (10:35 P.M. EST on 2/16/17). Rather than disappoint the fans and keep Winx from practice, they are staging a 1200 metre (less than a mile and less than 6 furlongs) gallop that same day at the same track between races. Bowman will ride Winx while he wears a camera and a microphone in a gallop against her own stablemates. Winx’s next true race will be 3/3/18 in the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes, also at Randwick in Sydney, Australia.
If you are looking for some international sport, look to Australia for some outstanding Thoroughbred racing. While the best human athletes compete in their Winter Olympics in Korea, it is Summer time in Australia and Winx has the racing world on fire! I can’t wait to watch her gallop, this weekend. I am very in awe of the Olympian of the Outback. Go Winx!
