Record breaking Winx set for final bow in the Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick

The most famous racehorse in the world will bring down the curtain on an extraordinary career to complete an amazing run of success that has already brought a record 24 Group 1 victories.

Winx will race in front of a sell-out crowd at Royal Randwick for Day 2 of The Australian Turf Club (ATC) Championships’ – the Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes Day.

Should Chris Waller’s all-conquering mare add to her record and secure a third consecutive success in the 2000 metre distance race, she will become the highest-earning racehorse of all time, with total earnings reaching over £14 million.

Typically there was a large media presence at Rosehill Gardens racecourse on Thursday, where Winx exercised under Hugh Bowman in advance of her swansong appearance and she provided a touch of pre-race drama after her final gallop. The seven-year-old caused connections brief concern when she kicked out at railings after her track exercise to the extent it left a hole in an advertising sign. As is protocol, she then had to be cleared by a veterinary check but was passed fit to take her place in the race to face eight opponents jumping from the outside gate.

Winx’s regular race day jockey Bowman is focused on sending the champion mare out a winner for owners Peter Tighe, Debbie Kepitis and Richard Treweeke and he has been a major part of the horse’s incredible journey, missing only two of her thirty-two consecutive wins over the last four years.

Ironically Bowman missed out on Winx’s first win of her unbelievable winning streak when Brisbane based jockey Larry Cassidy brought the Waller’s filly from last on the home turn to win the Group 3 $125,000 Sunshine Coast Guineas (1600m) at the Sunshine Coast at the beginning of the 2015 Queensland Winter Carnival. The rest they say is history.

With motherhood just around the corner, Waller boldly predicted: “She is ready to explode”, with Bowman being quoted as saying that if he has to push the mighty mare to her limit he will, but he won’t have her at full throttle if he doesn’t need to.

The $4 million Group 1 Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes is one of seven high quality races on the card at Royal Randwick which also includes three other Group 1 races, the $2 million Schweppes Sydney Cup, the $1 million Heineken Australian Oaks, and Coolmore Legacy Stakes.

As the Official Partner of the Australian Turf Club, prestige Swiss watchmaker Longines will once again be official timekeepers of the Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes race day.