One of the greatest race mares to grace the turf was Australian legend Winx.
She raced from May 2015 up to April 2019, winning a whopping 33 races in a row including a world record 25 Group 1 events.
She was the top-ranked filly in the world in 2016 and the top-ranked turf horse of all in 2017.
In 2018 she was ranked level at the top with Cracksman on 130, though many believe that rating by then to have overexaggerated her ability somewhat.
Winx’s Pedigree
Winx was foaled on September 14th, 2011 at Coolmore Stud in New South Wales.
A bay filly, she is by Street Cry who’d won a Dubai World Cup and who’d sired Zenyatta and Street Sense among others.
The dam was Vegas Showgirl, a New Zealand-bred who was making great strides as a broodmare.
| Sire/Dam | Grand Sire/Dam | Great Grand Sire/Dam |
|---|---|---|
| Street Cry | Machiavellian | Mr Prospector |
| Coupe De Folie | ||
| Helen Street | Troy | |
| Waterway | ||
| Vegas Showgirl | Al Akbar | Success Express |
| Gala Night | ||
| Vegas Magic | Voodoo Rhythm | |
| Vegas Street |
Winx’s Broodmare Career
Well bred, Winx’s own career in the breeding sheds after racing is expected to be highly successful.
It was hoped after retirement in fact that she could break records as a broodmare, each of her foals expected to be worth $1 million or more. She was initially to be covered by I Am Invincible, a top sire, during her first breeding season in Australia.
At first, she was said to be doing well while in foal with her first, before the dreadful news came that she’d lost her first foal which was devastating for all involved. Time will tell just how well she does as a broodmare.
Racing Career
After being foaled at Coolmore, Winx was sold as a yearling at the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale in 2013 for $230,000.
She was named Winx because of her dam Vegas Showgirl, the idea being that men in the front row of Las Vegas burlesque shows would wink at the exotic dancers. She was sent to be trained by Chris Waller.
She began her career on the track with three wins in a row, though what many don’t remember is that thereafter she won only one of her next seven.
At the end of her three-year-old season, she fought back to win two more races in May of 2015. These included the Queensland Oaks, a Group 1, which began her incredible long winning streak.
In her four-year-old season she was named the Australian Horse of the Year for 2015/16. She was also the middle-distance champion having won seven on the bounce including the Doncaster Mile and one of the world’s biggest races, the Cox Plate.
The following season she defended her Cox Plate title, this time beating Godolphin’s Hartnell by a huge eight lengths. Hartnell had finished runner-up to Winx on several occasions, something that lends itself to the fact that she is thought to have no great competition in her time, given that the gelding was just about Group 3 quality when trained by Mark Johnston in England.
She also went on to win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, once more being named the Horse of the Year.
In all, she won 33 races in a row including a record 25 Group 1’s. Much to the chagrin of Australian racing fans however, there is indeed a very distinct lack of credible opposition shown in her form.
She would undoubtedly have had much tougher tests in the USA, Ireland, England, France and even Dubai. For her part though, she never put a foot wrong.
Earnings
In her relatively long racing career, Winx brought home a fantastic $26,421,176. As of the beginning of 2023, that equates to around £15 million.
Her earnings in fact form part of the feud between Aussie race fans and all others, her supporters questioning why she should leave the country when such good prize money is on offer.
The reply generally is that her reputation doesn’t stand away from Australia like it does at home while in terms of the money, it’s true that from race to race she can earn more in Australia than in more territories, if she’s been tested abroad she’d have run for even more.
Had she gone to the Dubai Carnival, the Breeders’ Cup or the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe that would destroy the reason of prize money being given for keeping her at home.
Connections
Winx was bred by Fairway Thoroughbreds and was owned during her racing career by Magic Bloodstock Racing, R G Treweeke & D N Kepitis.
She was trained by Chris Waller and ridden by star jockey Hugh Bowman, the 2017 Longines World’s Best Jockey.