Chasing her 18th straight success the champion Street Cry mare stumbled out of the gates and lost many lengths before settling at the back of the field.
Jockey Hugh Bowman allowed Winx to gradually work her way up to the back of the field and stayed there until turning for home.
With her rivals smashing 33 seconds for the last 600 metres of the race Winx was required to call on all her incredible talent to carve out incredible sectionals to reel in her best mate Foxplay.
The mare flew home to score what many seasoned racegoers described as one of the greatest performances ever seen on a racecourse – in a sit and sprint race to mow down a quality Group One winner with a paralysing burst of speed.
Sent out $1.10 with bookies Winx was expected to win – but many thought the streak was about to end when she trailed the field by many lengths after a few seconds.
Connections were searching for superlatives to describe the goosebump creating performance.
“I was a bit worried going past the 700,” Bowman said. “The way the track is playing with the very slick times I was thinking it could be mathematically impossible to catch them.”
“There was nothing I could do about that. I just had to rely on the engine that’s inside her.”
“I had to have confidence in her and ride her to run the race. For me I want to win as much as everyone else but after what happened out of the barriers I had to renegotiate where I was and I was worried half way through – it was a good feeling the last 200.”
“She’s just so much better than them and I had to rely on that to win the race. I was stuck back there and thinking, this isn’t good, I don’t want to be here.”
“What can I say, she’s just a freak,” Bowman summed up.
“It’s out of my hands when you put Hugh Bowman on,” a proud Chris Waller said. “I think that is a big part of the success – the team behind Winx. Hugh never panics – when you put the reins in his hand you know you’ve got the right man aboard.”
“He realised he had to make up a bit of ground and he used the full length of the straight to do it, instead of panicking at the 300 metre mark – that’s Hugh Bowman.”
“I’d say she will be back here in two weeks,” Waller said. “She’s just come back that bit bigger and a bit of extra racing won’t hurt her.”
It was a stable quinella for Waller with Winx and her best equine mate Foxplay – both purchased by connections of the stable from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Winx’s current preparation is centred around equalling Kingston Town’s record of three consecutive wins in the weight-for-age championship of Australasia, the WS Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in late October.
Winx was purchased by connections at the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $230,000 from the draft of Coolmore Stud.
The Coolmore team presented the filly at the Queensland based auction on behalf of her breeder, Fairway Thoroughbreds – the Camilleri family.
Courtesy of today’s first up win Winx has enhanced her incredible record to 22 wins from 28 starts and earnings of over $13 million.
Elsewhere on the Randwick card there were group race victories for Dracarys and Sweet Redemption to compliment the success of the Warwick Stakes champion.
Dracarys, a $1 million yearling star from the Gold Coast last year, scored his biggest win for connections in the aptly named Up and Coming Stakes at Group Three level.
Prepared by Peter and Paul Snowden for a large team of owners brought together by his yearling buyer James Harron, Dracarys is a colt by Snitzel from the stakes winning mare Nocturnelle who was sold through the draft of Arrowfield Stud.
“Compared to last preparation he’s a completely different animal,” co-trainer Paul Snowden told reporters after the race. “All he wants to do is relax and work with you.”
Snowden said the Group One Golden Rose was the main ambition for the rising stable star.
Later in the afternoon the bonny mare Sweet Redemption added another feature win to her record when she won the Group Three Toy Show Quality.
Prepared by the training partnership of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Sweet Redemption showed speed throughout and proved too strong for Euro Angel and Imposing Lass.
“She’s pretty talented, she was nice and forward going into the race and the way the pattern of the day’s been playing we took that approach to make it a good test,” Bott said.
Connections will look to more feature stakes races for fillies and mares for the daughter of Snitzel, who was purchased by Round Table Racing for $120,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from Bell View Park Stud.
