Winx is set to have her final race start in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick on Saturday and we will be celebrating the great mare all week long.
Winx’s incredible winning streak started with her breathtaking victory in the 2015 Sunshine Coast Guineas and she will extend that mark to 33 when she wins on Saturday.
We have gone through every single one of Winx’s wins and ranked them all in order. What have we decided is the greatest performance in Winx’s incredible winning career?
This is sure to cause plenty of debate and we can ensure that it was an extremely tough job – she has so many great wins!
2016 Apollo Stakes
There was nothing wrong with Winx’s win in the 2016 Apollo Stakes, but she wasn’t overly dominant and it wasn’t the strongest field.
2019 Apollo Stakes
She started her last Autumn campaign the way she had the last two, with an easy win in the Apollo Stakes.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about this win although she did beat the every consistent and popular galloper Happy Clapper. Easily.
2018 Chipping Norton Stakes
Winx started her Autumn campaign in the Chipping Norton Stakes and it’s safe to say it was not the strongest field ever assembled. Prized Icon ran second and Classic Uniform ran third. They were both beaten by approx 7.5 lengths.
2016 George Main Stakes
The 2016 George Main Stakes was there for the taking for Winx and she did exactly that without being particularly impressive.
The win may be better than it looks visually as runner-up Hauraki came out and franked that form with a win in the Epsom Handicap a fortnight later.
2018 George Main Stakes
It was touted as possibly the last time Sydney would see Winx and they turned out in droves for her, and on her birthday as well!
She was dominant yet again although the field was made up of mostly stayers like Ace High and Who Shot TheBarman.
2016 Chipping Norton Stakes
This was another procession for Winx.
She did beat some serious horses, but the likes of Hartnell and Mongolian Khan were not at the best and it was Dibayani that chased her home.
2017 Chipping Norton Stakes
Greg Radley and some of the other commentators on Sky carried on like this was one of her best wins due to the heavy track, but Winx has proven that she has not issues on a wet surface – or any surface for that matter.
Hartnell didn’t handle the track and the fact that Lasqueti Spirit was able to run second just about sums it up.
2015 Queensland Oaks
The Queensland Oaks was Winx’s first Group 1 win and she cruised to victory against what was a fairly average group of fillies.
She looked like a filly with plenty of promise at the end of her 2015 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival campaign, but you wouldn’t have found many punters that thought they had seen the next Cox Plate winner.
2016 Ladbrokes Stakes
Winx may have only beaten two other horses in the 2016 Ladbrokes Stakes, but this win shouldn’t be discounted.
Black Heart Bart had already won two Group 1 races during his Spring campaign and he was absolutely flying, while He Or She went into the race off a second place finish in the Underwood Stakes.
2016 Warwick Stakes
Winx made the likes of Hartnell and Rebel Dane look absolutely second rate in the first race start of her 2016 Spring Racing Carnival campaign.
Hartnell came out and won his next start in the Chelmsford Stakes by over seven lengths, while Rebel Dane went on to win the Manikato Stakes that preparation.
2018 George Ryder Stakes
The hype was real about the three year old Godolphin colt Kementari heading into the Group 1 George Ryder. James Cummings and the team had a throw at the stumps but came up short although he has not disappointing in defeat running third.
The ever consistent Happy Clapper ensured Winx was ridden out to the line, getting within three quarters of length on the post.
2017 Apollo Stakes
Winx’s first start of 2017 suggested that she would be better than ever this calendar year.
A year earlier she had won the Apollo Stakes without looking overly impressive, but this time she was dominant against a much stronger field.
2019 Chipping Norton Stakes
Happy Clapper actually broke a record this day as well as Winx. He became the horse to have run second to the great mare the most times. The record was previously held by Hartnell and it was the fourth time Happy Clapper ran second to her.
He certainly made her work for her 23rd Group 1 victory but the great mare dug deep to go past him in the last 100m.
2018 Winx Stakes
Emulating Black Caviar, Winx won her first up assignment in the Spring by winning a race named in her honour.
For not the first time in her career, at around the 350m mark we all had our hearts in our mouth wondering if she would make up enough ground to win. At the 100m we were shaking our heads in disbelief, filthy at ourselves that we doubted her even for a second.
2017 Chelmsford Stakes
Many people would have this win higher, but let’s be real for a second – she only beat Red Excitement.
Josh Parr’s excellent front-running ride on Red Excitement turned this into a genuine contest, but Winx’s always looked to have plenty in hand and it ended up being a fairly soft win.
2017 George Main Stakes
The critics were keen to come for Winx following this win in the George Main Stakes, but there was plenty of merit in this victory.
Hugh Bowman was forced to ask her for an extra effort a long way from home and she took a while to pick-up Happy Clapper, but the way she savaged the line late was supreme.
Happy Clapper went on to win the Epsom Handicap at his next start.
2019 George Ryder Stakes
Winx won her fourth straight George Ryder Stakes in style and with little trouble. It was a leader bias track on the day and Bowman had to get stuck in at the 200m but she responded well and beat home three year old colt Brutal.
2015 Theo Marks Stakes
This was a win that suggested we were dealing with a very serious animal.
At this stage of her career, Winx was pegged as a stayer and was simply using the Theo Marks Stakes as prep run on the way to races over longer distances, but she showed a remarkable turn-of-foot to beat some quality sprinters over 1300 metres.
2015 Sunshine Coast Guineas
The 2015 Sunshine Coast Guineas is Winx’s most overrated win.
It is obviously incredibly impressive to the eye and few horses could have replicated that performance, but the race was set-up for the swoopers and this was far from the strongest field.
2016 George Ryder Stakes
Kermadec, Press Statement, First Seal, Happy Clapper, Turn Me Loose, Tinto and Hucklebuck are all Group 1 winners, but Winx made them look absolutely second-rate.
It wasn’t the most visually impressive or the most dominant, but this is up there with one of her most underrated wins.
2017 Warwick Stakes
Winx missed the start by four lengths in the Warwick Stakes and this was far from ideal as no horse had made up ground down the outside all day.
Very few horses could have won from where Winx was and although she only just got there, it remains one of her more impressive wins.
2018 Turnbull Stakes
Winx headed south in search of a fourth successive Cox Plate and she had one hell of a return to Flemington.
Not only did she have to squeeze past a couple at the 250m having to make up 4-5 lengths to win but her closing sectional times were simply unheard of.
The champ had ran the first 800m in 50.82 seconds but somehow ran over her rivals running the last 800m in 43.98 seconds. She also ran her last 600m in 32.21 seconds with the last 200m in 10.87 seconds.
2017 Turnbull Stakes
There was a spruik for Humidor in the lead-up to the Turnbull Stakes and you never know how a horse will handle Flemington, but Winx answered her critics in the most dominant way possible.
She cruised into the race at the top of the straight like she was Black Caviar and quickly put seven lengths on her rivals when asked for an extra effort.
2017 Queen Elizabeth Stakes
Winx always goes to another level over 2000 metres and this was a perfect example of that.
She beat Hartnell by more than five lengths and Sense Of Occasion – who went on to win the Doomben Cup a couple of starts later – by six.
2018 Queen Elizabeth Stakes
It was her second Queen Elizabeth Stakes win in a row and it was another dominant and professional performance from one of the best we’ve ever seen.
She beat a quality field of horses including Gailo Chop, Happy Clapper and Humidor proving her class.
2016 Doncaster Mile
Nothing went right for Winx in the 2016 Doncaster Mile, but she was still able to record an extremely impressive win.
Hugh Bowman was blocked for a run until the 300 and Winx was unable to build any momentum, but she exploded when she found clear running to outsprint Happy Clapper and Azkadellia.
2015 Epsom Handicap
The forgotten win of Winx’s incredible winning streak shows her amazing will to win as well as her toughness.
Winx was caught deep throughout the Epsom Handicap, she was almost knocked over on the turn and she was checked in the straight, but that didn’t stop her unleashing her usual sprint to claim the second Group 1 win of her career.
2017 George Ryder Stakes
Le Romain was in career best form during the 2017 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival and Chautauqua is a superstar in his own right, but they were no match for Winx in the 2017 George Ryder Stakes.
Bowman was adamant that she didn’t enjoy the heavy track, but she was still able to beat these multi-time Group 1 winners by more than seven and a half lengths!
2017 Cox Plate
Attempting to equal Kingston Town’s record of three Cox Plates, the great mare handled the pressure like a true champion.
Bowman had her circling the field early and she went passed the leading group before straightening with the crowd erupting as one with history was about to be made.
However Winx was about to be challenged by a late surging Humidor and for only a second the country feared an upset. It was only a second though, as she responded well and won by a half length.
2015 Cox Plate
A star was truly born the day Winx beat Might And Power’s track record to win the 2015 Cox Plate.
She showed that she was able to cope with the quick early tempo set by The Cleaner and she cruised to the lead under own steam before she quickly put four lengths on Criterion and Highland Reel.
2018 Cox Plate
Winx raced into equine immortality when she won a record fourth successive Ladbrokes Cox Plate in the Spring last year.
There were challengers, sure. Matt Chapman came over from England spruiking the chances of Benbatl as if he had a chance of toppling the superstar mare which at the very least added a bit of publicity to the race however he was no match for her. She stalked the British invader heading round the sharp Moonee Valley turn that she knows all too well and went away from her rivals in the concluding stages with the “Valley rocking”.
It was equine utopia.
2016 Cox Plate
There have been few more impressive wins in the history of Australian racing.
A number of racing experts believed that a flying Hartnell could challenge Winx in the 2016 Cox Plate and for a couple of strides it looked like we were in for a repeat of Bonecrusher vs Our Waverley Star but Winx quickly put paid to those comparisons.
In the blink of an eye, Winx had put several lengths on her rivals and she made the other horses in this field look as though they were standing still!