Racing NSW chairman Peter V’Landys credits an unbeatable late acceleration as the key attribute to the incredible race success of Winx who shoots for her seventeenth consecutive turf triumph at Royal Randwick in this afternoon’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2017.
Winx will show offer her incredible acceleration at Royal Randwick in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2017 on The Championships Day 2. Photo: Steve Hart.
The mighty Chris Waller-trained mare is the main attraction on The Championships Day 2 and looks all but invincible in the $4 million Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m).
“Tomorrow is all about Winx,” V’Landys told News Corp on Friday.
“Seventeen in a row, she’s caught the public’s imagination, she’s an out and out champion.”
Winx has won her past sixteen straight starts going back to the autumn of 2015 and by day’s end this afternoon, she will be a twelve-time Group 1 winner.
After a barnstorming seven length Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) win on a Heavy (10) Rosehill track last time out, Winx is at $1.10 to handle a Heavy (8) back at her preferred course Randwick today.
There has been the slightest ease in Queen Of The Turf Stakes odds offered for the five-year-old who is out from $1.09 to $1.10 to take her career prize money up over $12.7 million.
That will see Winx sit second only to Makybe Diva in the all-time prize money earners, surpassing champion New Zealand mare and fellow dual Cox Plate winner Sunline ($11.35 million).
It is hard to pin-point exactly what it is about Winx that has her dominating Australian racing so comprehensively.
Her regular rider Hugh Bowman has hinted that it has something to do with her incredible balance, while V’Landys said her blistering acceleration was like nothing he had ever seen before.
“I’ve never seen a horse that can accelerate like she does … and we hope to see that again,” he said.
Putting her rivals to shame late is something Winx does best.
It would be awful to be a hoop aboard a rival racehorse sitting ahead of her with a few hundred metres to go, believing you could be the one to end the winning streak.
There would be part of you that would love to make those headlines, while another would be sad to see such a superlative racing queen be defeated.
Today at Randwick the only one of the eight other runners in Queen Elizabeth Stakes betting that has had any support for a win is the Patrick Webster-trained Happy Clapper.
Third to Lucia Valentina in last autumn’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes trifecta, Happy Clapper has been backed in from $19 to $16 to go two better this year.
The horse ran second in the Doncater Mile for the second year in a row last weekend and is in peak form preparing to take on the mighty mare.
Jockey Blake Shinn rides Happy Clapper and knows he is running for second at best, but got off to a great start early on the day riding Generalissimo to victory in the second.
Check out the latest Randwick racing odds and Winx betting offers online now at Ladbrokes.com.au.
