Winx shows just how good she is

Hugh Bowman.
Hugh Bowman.
The result was as expected, the way she did it was simply breathtaking.

Superstar mare Winx returned to the racetrack with arguably one of her greatest performances to register her 18th consecutive win in the Warwick Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.

The Chris Waller-trained 6yr-old left the Randwick crowd and millions watching from further afield astonished with her scintillating last-to-first victory after botching the start of the 1400m group 2 event.

Winx was restless in the starting stalls before the race and was seen to be throwing her head around just before the start, which led to her jumping out more four lengths behind her rivals.

The bungled start left onlookers in shock and rider Hugh Bowman searching for a new race plan.

"After what happened out of the barriers I had to renegotiate," Bowman said in his post-race television interview.

"There was nothing I could do about that.  I just had to rely on the engine that I know is in her."

After the mishap, Bowman remained cool and tacked Winx on to the back of the field, before biding his time on the champion mare through the middles stages of the race.

"I couldn’t take off, but I was stuck back there and I was thinking ‘this isn’t good, I don’t want to be back here’.

"I was a bit worried going past the 700m, because of the way the track conditions are — they are running really slick times — and I’m thinking it could be mathematically impossible to catch them."

With nothing taking Winx into the race, Bowman angled to the outside of the Randwick track in the straight, where she let down with a scintillating finish to catch stablemate Foxplay who, if she had been  racing any other horse, would have been assured a win.

Winx’s stunning finish even had the calm and collected Bowman searching for superlatives after the race.

"What can I say ? She is just a freak. She is just so much better than them and I had to rely on them to win the race.

"It was a concern halfway through, but it was a good feeling the last 200m."

Chris Waller praised Bowman for his patient tactics after the mare threw the rider a curve ball with her slow start, when he spoke to SKY Racing Channel after Saturday’s race.

"He never panicked and he knew 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 300m mark, and that is Hugh Bowman."

Waller is eyeing a return to Randwick in two weeks for the Chelmsford Stakes when Winx will attempt to  win 19 in a row.

"I would say she would be back here in two weeks.

"She’s just come out that bit bigger and a bit of extra racing won’t hurt her. It might just bring her on, I think."

Although the win of Winx’s former sparring partner, Harntell, in the PB Lawrence Stakes at Caulfield was expected, his victory also came via extraordinary circumstances.

After the horse won the event convincingly, rider Craig Williams weighed in more than 1kg overweight.

Then, in an extraordinary revelation to stewards, Williams admitted he rode Hartnell with farrier equipment in his boots.

Williams told stewards, that behind the starting barriers he put a set of clinching tongs and a buffer in his boots after he realised he was wearing a lighter vest than the one he weighed out to ride Hartnell, to avoid weighing in light.

Williams was fined $A2000 ($NZ2169) for the indiscretion.

Weather was the only thing to cause some of New Zealand’s galloping stars any chaos when they hit the track for the group 2 Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa on Saturday.

While some horses struggled on the heavy and rain-drenched surface, proven wet tracker Underthemoonlight certainly did not.

The Karyn McQuade 6yr-old came with a huge late finish to win the feature over Close Up and favourite Kawi, who ran a brave third after not looking comfortable in the wet conditions.  

- Jonny Turner

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