Australian mare Winx wins 30th successive race

SYDNEY — Australian racehorse Winx added another mark to her storied career in what is expected to be her final season when she won her 30th successive race in the Apollo Stakes at Royal Randwick in Sydney on Saturday.

The bay mare, who had not raced since winning her fourth Cox Plate last October, clinched the Aus$250,000 1,400-metres Group Two race by two lengths to Happy Clapper in front of a massive crowd to extend her own record of consecutive victories by an Australian horse.

Black Caviar is the next best Australian horse with 25 successive race wins, 15 of which were Group One victories. She retired in 2013 undefeated. “She showed how good she is,” Winx trainer Chris Waller said after the victory, in which jockey Hugh Bowman eased off once the horse hit the front with about 300m to run.

“And that’s what everyone wants to see.” Waller has already said that Winx would be retired in the first half of 2019. Her next race would be in two weeks at the Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick. She has won the 1,600-metre weight-for-age race for the last three years. 

The seven-year-old has won a world record 22 Group One races in succession and accumulated almost Aus$23 million ($16.43 million) in earnings. She has won 34 of her 40 career starts. “Just very proud”, an emotional Waller added.  “I can’t say anymore than that. It’s great for racing.”