For starters, there weren’t many of them. Watching the transcendent daughter of Street Cry had become a treat for the nation – racing cognoscenti and otherwise. Combatting her, however, was now a wholly unpalatable idea. Only two opponents were initially entered to run with her, or at least jump with her, in the half-million dollar race. It shaped as a repeat of her stroll in the three-horse Caulfield Stakes the previous spring, until a call-around rustled four more willing victims, of varying repute. With $10,000 on offer for finishing seventh, why not? Magicool leapt in on the back of a last of 10 in the Benalla Cup. Skyfire came from a fifth of seven in a Mornington benchmark 78. And then there was her form – not the familiar equine shape which frightened many a rival with a menacing beauty, but the other kind: the Ws, the “picket fence” which by then could have ringed a mansion, let alone fronted a house. Now six, she’d won three this campaign. Though that included near calamity against Foxplay after missing the start in the Warwick Stakes – Bowman now recalls that period Winx at her most supreme. “Personally, I think she was at her best in that 12-month period,” Bowman tells us. “I was pretty confident that day, to be honest.”
Winx and Hugh Bowman cruising to victory in the 2017 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington. (John Donegan/Racing Photos)
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