Lessons Learned This Weekend

Winx Even Better Than We Realised…

Going into the G1 William Hill Cox Plate, we thought we knew pretty much all that there is to know about Winx (Aus) (Street Cry). She was, after all, the reigning champion and was on a winning streak of 12. However, we're always told that we never stop learning, and the Cox Plate did indeed prove to be an education as well as a treat as the mighty mare won in a manner so imperious that it stunned even her most ardent supporters with its majesty.

Going into the race, the soft ground was clearly one potential source of slight concern, bearing in mind that 11 of her 12 consecutive victories had come on good tracks. The only outing on soft ground during that sequence had been the G1 Doncaster Mile at Randwick last autumn. Although she won that race well, she clearly found it harder work than is normally the case for her, to the extent that it scuppered plans to back her up in the G1 Queen Elizabeth S., a hugely valuable weight-for-age event whose massive prize had seemed to be hers for the taking.

The soft ground at Moonee Valley on Saturday, however, provided no problems for the champion. Her victory was abnormally impressive even by her usual standards. The paeans of praise which her jockey Hugh Bowman heaped on his trusty steed after the race were a pleasure to hear, but even more welcome was her trainer Chris Waller's response to enquiries about future plans. The trainer made no commitments as regards her next assignment (two days later it was confirmed that she would now go out for a spell), but left no doubt about the principal plan: an attempt at a record-equalling third Cox Plate victory next season at the age of six.

The great race has only ever had one triple winner, the great gelding Kingston Town (Aus) (Bletchingly {Aus}), who scored in 1980, '81 and '82. Equalling Kingston Town's feat looked very feasible for So You Think (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) after his impressive victories in 2009 and '10, but the economics of the stallion business meant that sending the champ to Europe to enhance his CV there (something which he did in fine style by adding another five Group 1 races to his record) made more financial sense even than mopping up a few more of Australia's valuable weight-for-age races. Many of the headlines in the racing game are taken by colts, but a great gelding or a great racemare can give so much more to the sport simply because the imperative of maximising a colt's stud value isn't an issue.

SHE'S A STAR FOR NZ TOO…

While Winx's Cox Plate victory has to go down as an Australian triumph, it should not be forgotten that her dam Vegas Showgirl (NZ) (Al Akbar {Aus}) was a top filly in New Zealand and hails from a family which has formed a significant strand of the NZ Stud Book ever since Winx's ninth dam Stepdancer (NZ) (Stepniak {NZ}) was born on the South Island of New Zealand in 1899. Winner of the Dunedin Cup in both 1906 and '07, Stepdancer was a proper heroine both as racemare and broodmare, in which latter role she excelled thanks to repeated matings with the seven-time NZ champion sire Martian (NZ) (Martagon {GB}).

Stepdancer's offspring by Martian were headed by Warstep (NZ), who broke the record for earnings by a racemare in the Dominion when winning a host of feature races including the Auckland Cup, Trentham Gold Cup, New Zealand Cup, Dunedin Cup and Canterbury Cup. Warstep's full-siblings included an NZ Oaks winner and a Dunedin Guineas winner, as well as Winx's eighth dam Stardancer (NZ), successful in the CJC Stewards' Handicap at Riccarton. Stardancer was nearly as good a broodmare as her dam had been: in addition to breeding Winx's seventh dam Spotlight (NZ) (Nassau {GB}), she produced NZ Oaks winner Starmist (NZ) (Autumnus {NZ}) and Spotlight's Auckland Cup-winning full-brother Starland (NZ). It is a family which has been throwing out champions in New Zealand for over a century–but none of the champions has been able to sit on a pedestal as high as the one which Winx currently occupies.

'SACRED' STARS FOR RAFFLES…

While the Kiwis were thus able to take plenty of reflected glory from Winx's Cox Plate success, they could take all of the kudos for the success of Sacred Elixir (NZ) (Pour Moi {Ire}) in the G2 Lucrf Super Vase S., otherwise known as the Moonee Valley Vase. This race generally ranks as an excellent trial for the G1 Victoria Derby, run seven days later at Flemington, and Sacred Elixir is now favourite for that time-honoured Classic.

Trained in Cambridge, New Zealand by Tony Pike, Sacred Elixir proved himself New Zealand's best 2-year-old of last season primarily by his success in Australia in the G1 J. J. Atkins S. at the Brisbane Winter Carnival in Queensland in June. He has now won at both Group 3 and Group 2 level in Melbourne this spring, and clearly has excellent prospects of registering a Group 1 success this season too.

Sacred Elixir is the latest high-class horse to carry the 'Sacred' prefix for Raffles Stud, which in recent years has established itself as one of the canniest and most successful operations in New Zealand. Arguably the best horse to have represented the stud to date has been four-time Group 1 winner Sacred Falls (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}), who now stands at Waikato Stud. The stud's other stars have included its home-bred 2013 G1 NZ Oaks winner More Than Sacred (Aus) (More Than Ready) and this year's G1 Auckland Cup victrix Rock Diva (NZ) (Lucky Unicorn {Aus}), while the stud was also involved in the ownership of 2011 G1 Australian Guineas and G1 Australian Derby heroine Shamrocker (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}).

Raffles Stud now has a very strong broodmare band, but Sacred Elixir is not home-bred, having been bought for NZ$170,000 at the NZB Premier Yearling Sale at Karaka, selected by the stud's manager Bruce Sherwin working in tandem with astute Kiwi agent Guy Mulcaster.

CUP WEATHER WATCH FOR KIWIS…

During the years of seemingly permanent drought earlier this century, it seemed as if the days of big races of the Melbourne Spring Carnival being run on wet tracks had gone forever. It had generally been the case that horses from New Zealand would come into their own in these contests, with the mud-lashed G1 Melbourne Cup victory of Van Der Hum (NZ) (Hermes {GB}) on a quagmire at Flemington in 1976 being merely one of many great wet-track triumphs for the trans-Tasman raiders. This year's Cox Plate day, run during intermittent rain after a rain-lashed build-up, harked back to a former era, so we should not be surprised that there were some good results for the Kiwis.

The chances of this year's Emirates Melbourne Cup being run in the type of conditions in which Van Der Hum saluted the judge are remote, but if the wet weather persists the NZ-bred contingent should come more strongly into the reckoning. The G2 Antler Luggage Moonee Valley Gold Cup provided an opportunity for two of the best NZ-bred stayers to remind us both of their merit and of their liking for wet tracks. The winner Grand Marshal (GB) (Dansili {GB}), successful in last year's G1 Sydney Cup, was chased home by 2014 Melbourne Cup place-getter Who Shot Thebarman (NZ) (Yamanin Vital {NZ}) and Pentathlon (NZ) (Pentire {GB}), who finished second last season in the G2 Wellington Cup and fourth in the G1 Auckland Cup.

The 2013 Melbourne Cup marked a nadir for the New Zealand Thoroughbred when the unthinkable happened: there was not a single NZ-bred in the 24-horse field. Happily, things have looked up since then. Who Shot Thebarman finished third and Precedence (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) sixth in 2014, while last year two of the first three home bore the NZ suffix, with Prince Of Penzance (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) winning and Criterion (NZ) (Sebring {Aus}) finishing third.

SIR TRISTRAM LINE KEEPS FIRING…

Another good result for New Zealand on Cox Plate day was the triumph of Nurse Kitchen (NZ) (Savabeel {NZ}) in the G2 P. W. Glass Fillies Classic. Trained in Victoria by David Brideoake for her owner/breeders Peter and Sarah Moody, Nurse Kitchen served up a good reminder that the Sir Tristram sire-line, which has been the mainstay of breeding in New Zealand since the 1970s, is still a major force.

From his base at Cambridge Stud, Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) established himself as the most successful stallion ever to stand in the country, a title for which he was eventually challenged by his son Zabeel (NZ). Both stallions found their potential to excel as a sire of sires hampered by the fact that the majority of their best sons were geldings. However, each had enough good colts to keep the line going.

Zabeel's grandson Lonhro (Aus) (Octagonal {NZ}) topped the Australian General Sires' Table in the 2010/'11 season and remains one of the best stallions in Australia; while 2004 Cox Plate winner Savabeel (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) stands at Waikato Stud in New Zealand and has so far been represented by 11 individual Group 1 winners. Nurse Kitchen is very closely related to one of Savabeel's best sons, her dam's half-brother Hades (NZ) (Savabeel {NZ}) having won the G1 NZ Derby in 1999 before becoming one of the best horses in Hong Kong, where he raced as Helene Vitality and was placed in four local Group 1 races including the G1 HK Derby.