Winx delivers in perfect Rosehill send-off

[Chief Stipe]

A massive crowd flocked to Rosehill today to give Winx the home-track farewell she deserves, and the champion mare and her thousands of fans all rose to the occasion.

Trained at the track by expat New Zealander Chris Waller, the incomparable seven-year-old lined up in the Gr. 1 George Ryder Stakes for what is expected to be the second-last start of her career. The likely finale is next month’s Gr. 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes, across town at Randwick.

Winx’s western Sydney send-off went perfectly to script. Accompanied by a deafening roar from the stands and the waving of thousands of little blue flags, the champion produced her customary finishing flourish out wide on the track.

She bounded away from her outclassed opposition, winning by three and a half lengths to extend her winning sequence to 32. No fewer than 24 of those have been at Group One level, and her earnings have now broken through the A$24 million barrier. She has won seven of her eight starts at Rosehill.

The crowd’s prolonged ovation continued as jockey Hugh Bowman took Winx along the outside rail in the home straight, with U2’s ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ playing through the speakers.

“She’s a very special horse,” Waller said. “I’m sure she knows what’s going on. Just a marvellous horse to work with and we owe it to her to be in this position.

“She’s brought the world closer to Australian racing. We haven’t been overseas, but we don’t need to be worrying about that. We can just enjoy this for a racing moment that will be remembered for a long time here.

“I guess the race was run sort of differently today. A little bit of pressure early, they backed off, Hughie popped out four wide with a bit of arrogance, as we’ve seen him do and as he’s entitled to do. Obviously everyone expects her to win and that’s one of the reasons she does.

“Every other jockey I’m telling not to be three wide, but with her we have to be three wide to stay out of trouble. It’s the longest way home and it was a good fight, but the last 200 metres she just powered away.”

For Bowman, the win was every bit as easy as it looked.

“I would never have imagined growing up that I would be riding one of the greatest horses that has ever lived,” he said.

“The pace was pretty good in the early stages. I settled towards the rear of the field, as she often does, and when they slowed up the pace in the middle I was staying out wide on the better ground, because it’s quite chewed up on the inside with the conditions here this afternoon, so the pace steadied and I just crept a bit closer. I rode her like a piece of trackwork. Obviously I was more assertive with her over the last 300 metres than I would be here early in the mornings but for her it was very comfortable.

“When I asked her to stretch she responded and you could hear the crowd roar. The excitement and the emotion, she responds to that as well as anything else, and once again I am just so proud of her and proud to be a part of it.”

New Zealand-bred three-year-old Brutal ran a big race for second, finishing almost three lengths clear of the rest of the field. The O’Reilly colt was lining up for just his seventh start.

“She obviously put me away, but full credit to him,” jockey Tommy Berry said. “He’s a young horse, he still fought back when she went past him. He didn’t love the ground, he’s in for a great preparation.”

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