Comparing Racehorse Earnings (today's dollars) of Years gone by! Winx at $26m is only third!

[Chief Stipe]

Verry Elleegant chases another big payday

Verry Elleegant can add another Group 1 to her imposing tally in Saturday’s Winx Stakes. Picture: Getty Images

 

By Ray Thomas
09:32pm • 19 August 2021

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Sydney’s super mare Verry Elleegant will vault to sixth on the all-time list of prizemoney earners if she wins the Group 1 $500,000 Winx Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

The Chris Waller-trained mare is currently ninth with $8,591,744 and can move past Chautauqua, So You Think and Classique Legend on the earnings rankings led by her former stablemate and world record-holder Winx with $26,451,174.

Verry Elleegant is the TAB $2.90 favourite to win the ninth Group 1 race of her career and join Winx (2016-17-18) and Tarien (1953-54) as the only mares to win multiple Winx (formerly Warwick) Stakes.

Waller has five runners in the Winx Stakes including Kolding, who is 20th on the prizemoney table with $6,392,450, and provided Sky Thoroughbred Central’s Richard Haynes with a summation of his big-race runners earlier this week.

“Obviously Verry Elleegant is a talking point being a Caulfield Cup winner and having so many Group 1 wins next to her name,’’ Waller said.

“She’s drawn well and looks to get a nice run.

“Hungry Heart is coming off the back of three wins in the autumn and she will be competitive over the 1400m.

“Kolding has drawn a bit wide but has had the benefit of that first-up run (fifth behind Phobetor in the Missile Stakes).

“Star Of The Seas runs well fresh and has been placed in this race before (second to Verry Elleegant last year) and Imaging is deadly fresh.’’

There are four active horses in the top 20 prizemoney rankings, including Classique Legend. Waller trains the other three – Verry Elleegant, Kolding and Nature Strip, who is 11th with $8,026,685.

Verry Elleegant certainly deserves her lofty ranking on the prizemoney table given she has won eight Group 1 races from 1400m to 2500m under handicap, weight-for-age and set weights conditions.

 

Four-time Cox Plate champion Winx is the nation’s top prizemoney earner.

 

But in this era of inflated prizemoney races, using career earnings as a measure of equine talent is not an exact science.

It’s a different take on the so-called prizemoney wars but how would the records of the great champions of the past compare if they were updated to the prizemoney levels of the modern era?

What would the legendary Phar Lap have earnt if he was racing today?

Where would the great Tulloch rank, or Rising Fast, a four-time grand slam winner?

And what about the mighty Kingston Town, who became racing’s first $1m earner 40 years ago?

There are a range of variables to consider including the changing prestige of races, the introduction of new races and the abolition of others, so the final results are open to interpretation.

But Phar Lap’s record stands the test of time, winning 37 of his 51 starts – ­including 36 of his last 40 races – including of course the 1930 Melbourne Cup and two Cox Plates (1930-31).

Phar Lap won all the major weight-for-age races of his era including some that are no longer on the turf calendar, and I equated his earnings on Australian soil as about $28m before the great champion won his final race, the 1932 Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico.

At the time, the Agua Caliente, which is now defunct, was the richest race in the world, so by today’s standards this means up to $10m could be added to Phar Lap’s earnings.

Rising Fast won the 1954 Caulfield Cup-Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup treble, the only horse to win the big three in one spring carnival.

He returned the following year to win another Caulfield Cup before a close second in the Melbourne Cup.

If Rising Fast was racing today, the winner of 24 of his 68 starts, would have amassed more than $25m prizemoney.

 

Makybe Diva prizemoney record stood for a decade before she was passed by Winx.

 

Tulloch is the only horse to win the ATC, VRC and QTC Derbies and Sires Produce Stakes, plus the 1957 Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and three Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

As the winner of 36 of his 52 starts, the great horse’s career earnings would be more than $27m today.

Kingston Town was the first horse to win $1 million when he took out the 1981 STC Cup.

He also won three Cox Plates, ATC Derby, Tancred Stakes, Sydney Cup and dominated weight-for-age racing, winning 30 of his 41 starts.

By today’s race valuations, Kingston Town would have won more than $22m.

Kingston Town retired with total earnings of $1,605,790 which stood as the national prizemoney record until Beau Zam became the first to pass $2m in 1988.

Better Loosen Up claimed the record when he won the 1990 Japan Cup, breaking the $4 million barrier, before his rival Super Impose moved beyond $5m winning the 1992 Cox Plate.

Octagonal, the 1996 triple crown winner including that epic ATC Derby, plus the winner of the Cox Plate, Australian Cup and two Tancred Stakes, eclipsed Super Impose’s mark when he retired with $5,892,231 in 1997.

But then the great Kiwi mare Sunline emerged to claim the prizemoney record when she won $11,351,600 after winning two Cox Plates (1999-2000).

Sunline’s record didn’t last long with champion Makybe Diva claiming her unprecedented Melbourne Cup hat-trick in 2003-04-05, to earn $14,526,900.

Makybe Diva’s record stood for more than a decade before Winx posted her world record total of more than $26m with four Cox Plates, three Queen Elizabeth Stakes, four George Ryder Stakes, four Chipping Norton Stakes, Doncaster Handicap and Epsom Handicap.

 

OUR TOP PRIZEMONEY EARNERS

1. Winx $26,451,174

2. Redzel $16,444,000

3. Makybe Diva $14,526,690

4. Sunline $11,351,610

5. Northerly $9,341,850

6. Chautauqua $8,821,935

7. So You Think $8,813,497

8. Classique Legend $8,635,500

9. Verry Elleegant $8,591,744

10. Santa Ana Lane $8,236,366

11. Nature Strip $8.026,685

20. Kolding $6,392,450

 

HOW DO THE GREATS COMPARE

Phar Lap – $38 million

Tulloch – $27 million

Rising Fast – $25 million

Kingston Town – $22 million