Winx (foaled 14 September 2011) is a retired champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse and active broodmare. She won 37 of 43 career starts, including, between May 2015 and her retirement in April 2019, her last 33 races in succession, including 25 Group 1s (a world record), at distances ranging from 1300 metres (roughly furlongs) to 2200 metres (roughly 11 furlongs). In the World's Best Racehorse Rankings, she was the second-ranked filly or mare in 2015, improving in 2016 to become both the world's top-ranked filly or mare and the world's top-ranked turf horse. She retained this ranking in 2017 and in 2018 was co-ranked as the best horse in the world. In 2017 she was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, only the third horse to earn this honour while still in training. Over her career, she earned more than 26 million Australian dollars.
Winx began her racing career with three straight wins but then won only one race in her next seven starts. Towards the end of her three-year-old campaign, she rebounded to win two races in May 2015, including the Group 1 Queensland Oaks, to start her winning streak. As a four-year-old, she was named the 2015/6 Australian Horse of the Year and middle distance champion after a seven race campaign that included wins in the W. S. Cox Plate and Doncaster Mile. In the 2016/7 season, she successfully defended her 2015 Cox Plate win with a commanding eight length victory over rival Hartnell. She completed the season with a win in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and was again named Horse of the Year.
For the 2017/18 season, she earned her third Horse of the Year honour after recording seven straight wins, including her third victories in the Cox Plate, Chipping Norton and George Ryder and her second win in the Queen Elizabeth. In the 2018/19 season, Winx began her seven-year-old campaign on 18 August in a race renamed in her honour and in doing so extended her winning streak to an Australasian record of 26, since extended to 33. Winx became the first horse in history to win the prestigious Cox Plate four times. She won the 2018 Secretariat Vox Populi Award, the top choice among race fans in a record 60 countries.
She finished her career on 13 April 2019 at Randwick racecourse by winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes for the third time. She was then retired to be a broodmare.
Background Winx is a bay mare bred in Australia by John Camilleri's Fairway Thoroughbreds. She was foaled on 14 September 2011 at Coolmore Stud, Jerrys Plains in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. She was sired by the Irish-bred Street Cry, who won the Dubai World Cup in 2002 before becoming a very successful breeding stallion in North America and Australasia. His other progeny included Zenyatta, Street Sense, Shocking and Whobegotyou. Winx's dam, Vegas Showgirl, was a stakes winner in New Zealand who was bought by Fairway Thoroughbreds in 2008 as a broodmare prospect for A$455,000.
Winx stood and nursed soon after foaling and quickly stood out as "a leggy Elle Macpherson type". She was sold as a yearling for $230,000 at the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast sale. She was part of a draft of horses from Coolmore Stud and was selected by Mulcaster Bloodstock (Guy Mulcaster) to be purchased "to a budget" by a partnership of Magic Bloodstock Racing (owned by Peter Tighe and his wife Patty), Richard Treweeke and Debbie Kepitis (daughter of famed owner Bob Ingham). The name "Winx" was inspired by her dam's name "Vegas Showgirl", and a memory of Treweeke that in Las Vegas burlesque shows from the 1970s and 1980s, "men in the front row would wink at the exotic dancers". Winx raced in Magic Bloodstock's silks: dark blue with white epaulettes and a large white "M", and was trained by Chris Waller.
Unlike many elite racehorses, Winx does not have a particularly long stride – her stride was measured at compared to nearly for Black Caviar and Phar Lap. Rather, her success has been attributed to a "freakish" cadence that allows her to take 14 strides every 5 seconds, compared to 12 for her rivals. "This means she can settle or accelerate at any time during a race", said Dr. Graeme Putt, who has studied the science of racehorse success. "I think this makes her unique."
Racing career
2013/14: two-year-old season After two racecourse trials, Winx made her competitive debut on 4 June 2014 in a maiden race and won over 1100 metres at Warwick Farm Racecourse. Later that month, on her second and final race of the season, she won over 1400 metres at Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney.
2014/15: three-year-old season Winx suffered the only losses of her racing career as a three-year-old, a fact that connections later attributed to her need to grow into herself. "For her first two years in training, physically, she was just catching up with herself", said bloodstock manager Peter O'Brien. "Chris [Waller] managed her beautifully — he never overtaxed her." In ten starts that year, she earned four wins and finished second three times.
Winx recorded her first major success when she won the Group 2 Furious Stakes over 1200 metres at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on 6 September 2014. She then finished second to First Seal in both the Tea Rose Stakes and the Flight Stakes before being given a summer break.
She finished unplaced twice in February 2015 before winning the Group 2 Phar Lap Stakes against male opponents over 1500 metres at Rosehill on 14 March. Two weeks later at the same track, she was stepped up in distance for the Vinery Stud Stakes against other fillies but finished unplaced behind Fenway. She started 9/5 favourite for the Australian Oaks over 2400 metres at Randwick on 11 April but was beaten by the 16/1 outsider Gust of Wind, the last race before her winning streak began.
After having earned only one win in her last seven starts, Winx was dropped in class for the Group 3 Sunshine Coast Guineas on 16 May. She trailed the large field as they turned for home but finally found racing room and drew off to win by one and three quarter lengths from the colt Ulmann. "At the 1000m I thought 'This is not good.' At the 600m it was even worse. I was in an impossible position", said jockey Larry Cassidy. "I just made the decision to come to the outside. If I was going to get beat, I didn't want it to be because I was on the inside behind horses. That was just breathtaking."
On her final appearance of the season she started odds-on favourite for the Group 1 Queensland Oaks on 30 May at Doomben Racecourse and won by three and a half lengths from Ungrateful Ellen.
2015/16: four-year-old season After running in a trial at Warwick Farm, Winx began her four-year-old campaign on 12 September 2015 by starting favourite for the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes over 1300 metres at Rosehill. After starting slowly, she moved to the outside of the field and closed rapidly to win by a head from the outsider Sons of John. Jockey James McDonald said, "She took a bit to get going. I just let her flop out and then let her gather momentum."
Three weeks later she contested the 150th running of the Epsom Handicap over 1600 metres at Randwick. Starting favourite against thirteen opponents, she overcame serious interference on the final turn to win by two and a half lengths from the six-year-old gelding Ecuador. Her weight of was the highest ever carried to victory in the race by a female. Speaking after the race, her trainer Chris Waller commented "For her to pick herself up after that and put herself back in the race before bursting through like she did, it was pretty special. Her winning strike rate separates her from a lot of horses. She overcomes barrier draws, track conditions and distances. She had a long three-year-old year. She has been everywhere and she is still firing. For her to come back as a four-year-old is pretty special."
On 24 October, Winx started favourite for Australia's most prestigious weight-for-age race, the Cox Plate over 2040 metres at Moonee Valley Racecourse. The field included an international element with Highland Reel (Secretariat Stakes) from Ireland, Arod (Diomed Stakes, Summer Mile Stakes) from England and Gailo Chop (Prix Guillaume d'Ornano) from France. The filly raced on the inside rail, broke clear of the field entering the straight and won by four and three quarter lengths from Criterion in a new race and course record time of 2:02.98, breaking Might and Power's 1998 race and course record by more than half a second. After the race, her jockey Hugh Bowman said "She's a group 1 mare, she's a serious racehorse. From the 800, I was very confident".
Winx earned a rating of 123 for the Cox Plate, which placed her in a tie for eighth in the 2015 World's Best Racehorse Rankings. In comparison to other fillies and mares, she ranked only behind Treve and tied for second with Beholder.
After a three and a half month break, Winx returned in autumn for two races at Randwick. On 13 February 2016 she won the Group 2 Apollo Stakes over 1400 metres and was then stepped back up to Group 1 level for the 1600 metre Chipping Norton Stakes two weeks later. Starting the odds-on favourite, she won by a length and a half from Dibayani with Hauraki a length away in third. Bowman, who had ridden many major winners including So You Think, described her as "the best I have had anything to do with."
In the George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill on 19 March, she again won at short odds, beating Kermadec by one and a half lengths. On 2 April, the filly started odds-on favourite for the A$3 million Doncaster Mile at Randwick despite carrying top weight in a fifteen-runner field on unsuitably soft ground. She looked unlikely to obtain a clear run in the straight but broke through in the closing stages to win by two lengths from Happy Clapper. Waller commented, "I'll call her a champion while I can speak. I thought she was beaten at the half-mile. She must have an amazing will to win."
The win in the Doncaster earned Winx a rating of 126 by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), which tied her for the lead in the April 2016 listing of the World's Best Racehorse rankings with California Chrome. "That's an extraordinarily high figure for a mare", said Racing Victoria's Chief Handicapper Greg Carpenter. "When you think of the great mares of the last decade, only horses like Black Caviar, Treve, Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra and Danedream have been able to run to figures of 127 and higher."
Winx was voted the Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year for 2015/6, receiving all but one vote. She was also named the champion middle-distance performer.
2016/17: five-year-old season Winx began her next season in the Warwick Stakes over 1400 metres at Randwick on 20 August. She took the lead 300 metres out and drew away to win by three and half lengths from Hartnell. She was entered in the Chelmsford Stakes on 3 September but scratched due to the heavy going. On 17 September, she won the Group I George Main Stakes (also known as the Colgate Optic White Stakes), pushing her lifetime earnings past the A$7,000,000 mark. She also extended her winning streak to 11, tying her with Kingston Town.
On 8 October, Winx faced only two rivals in the Caulfield Stakes. Black Heart Bart set the early pace, then Winx moved alongside on the turn while on the wrong lead. In the final 200m (one furlong), she switched to the right lead and drew off.