HUGH BOWMAN CLIMBED DOWN from Winx, thrilled, relieved, excited. Most of all, he was awestruck.
‘Look, I don’t like to get carried away, but she is a superstar in the making.’
He’d been on some class thoroughbreds before: many of them. He’d won a few dozen Group 1s in Australia, major races in England and Hong Kong. But what he’d just been through, and been carried through, by Winx in the 2015 Epsom Handicap had convinced him that, after only her fourteenth start and eighth win, this horse was the best one yet.
Before the Theo Marks, Winx had been a $13 chance in early Epsom betting. A more illustrious stablemate Kermadec, the previous autumn’s Doncaster winner, had headed the market at $6. After the Theo Marks, Winx had been shortened to $4 favouritism, with Kermadec hastily wound out to $9. Two days later a mountain of money had crunched Winx in to $2.80. On raceday, she opened at $3 before bookmakers teased some more punter interest by turning her out to $3.30. Those who hadn’t jumped on her midweek forced her in to $3.10 by post time.
If Winx could win the 1600-metre Epsom, she’d take not just another step but a major leap up in standing. While in the shadow of Randwick’s main ‘big mile’, the Doncaster, the Epsom maintains a high standing as one of the oldest fixtures of the Australian turf, its inception coming just four years after the first Melbourne Cup, in 1865. Winx would be taking part in the 150th running, aiming to emulate some heroes of turf folklore, like early 1990s dual-winner Super Impose, Gunsynd in 1971, 1920s champion Amounis, and the mighty Shannon, who won in 1945 but is perhaps more famous for missing the start by 100 metres the following year and still only losing by a short head.
Despite the punters’ confidence, there were substantial obstacles for Winx to overcome.
When handicaps were first announced after the Theo Marks, Winx had a comfortable 53 kilograms, 5 kilos below the top weight, and just 1 kilo above the stipulated minimum. But as other, higher-handicapped nominees dropped away, leaving mostly lightly weighted horses, officials were controversially forced to raise weights a whopping 4 kilograms to meet a racing rule that the topweight in a Group 1 handicap must have at least 58 kilograms.
These events sparked widespread comment about the peculiarity of having handicaps among Australia’s biggest races — such as the Melbourne and Caulfield cups — whereas most of the world favours ‘fairer’ weight-for-age and set-weights races. The Australian habit took root in the country’s formative years, partly because the then Victoria Turf Club wanted its new Melbourne Cup to be a well-patronised success, with good horses and battlers competing on a more even playing field by carrying different weights. Though some feel the situation paints Australia in an odd light, others cheer that it says much about our egalitarian mindset, while major (non-handicap) races elsewhere are usually dominated by the best horses from the richest owners.
The flaws in the Australian ‘minimum top weight’ system, however, were shown through the 2015 Epsom saga, described by more than one commentator as a shambles.
What it meant for Winx was she would be just 1 kilogram below topweight. She would also be just a kilo above the minimum, of course, but she still had to lug 57 kilograms, a hard ask for a mare who’d only just turned four among older male and female horses.
The adjustment compelled Winx to tackle not just some intimidating history, but also one of the oldest records in racing. Apart from only two mares having won the Epsom in forty years, no female had ever prevailed with such an impost. The weight-carrying record for mares winning the race was only 55 kilograms, and that was set by Djin Djin — in 1899.
At least Bowman was happily back in the saddle, seeking to atone for narrow seconds in the past two Epsoms on Royal Descent and Streama. But Winx would be confronting her toughest field yet in the $1 million feature.
The Hawkes team gelding Entirely Platinum, ridden by Tommy Berry, was fancied at $8.50 after two Group 1 placings in Melbourne. So too VRC Oaks winner Kirramosa, ridden by Blake Shinn, at $10. Sons Of John was back, an $18 chance despite the rare feat of coming within a half head of Winx the start before, while Lucia Valentina was at $9.50. She’d been Australia’s outstanding female of the previous spring, a win in Flemington’s Group 1 Turnbull Stakes and a third in the Caulfield Cup making her a $7 second-favourite in a failed Melbourne Cup run. The quality Newcastle galloper had her supporters for what many saw as a battle to decide the best mare in the country.
Of particular interest was Winx’s emerging stablemate Sadler’s Lake, with Jimmy Cassidy aboard. The four-year-old was second-favourite at $8 after winning three of his past five, two at Group 3 level. For added intrigue, the gelding was raced by the Ingham family — including Debbie Kepitis.
At this stage, Kepitis was equally excited about her gelding as she was about Winx, especially given Sadler’s Lake’s family connection. He was striving to become the Inghams’ first Group 1 winner since their racing empire was sold to Sheikh Mohammed in 2008.
‘I’m very hopeful he can win, unless the mare barrels down the outside and nabs him,’ Kepitis said two days before the race. ‘But when they go past the post it doesn’t matter, as long as they’ve both run their best race I’ll be happy.’1
As Kepitis headed to Randwick on another balmy spring Saturday, there was something else about her — apart from part-ownership of the top two favourites for a million-dollar race — which would become very noteworthy indeed. She wasn’t wearing her lucky outfit.
Made from material sourced in France, but designed in Australia, the black silk jacket and skirt splashed with purple and blue flowers and stars had first been worn by Kepitis when watching Preferment, the colt she part-owned with the Tighes, win the VRC Derby the year before.
Conceived with that co-ownership pairing in mind (the purple represents Kepitis’ Woppitt Bloodstock colours, and the blue the Tighes’ Magic Bloodstock silks), the ensemble would come to sit somewhere near Steve Waugh’s baggy green cap and Cathy Freeman’s running suit as one of the best-known items in the Australian sporting wardrobe.
The superstitious Kepitis, who would also add a streak of purple dye to her hair on raceday for good measure, had been wearing the outfit regularly to the races. She’d had it on that day at Scone, when Winx won on the Sunshine Coast. But on Epsom day 2015, perhaps because of nerves, or the excitement of part-owning the two favourites, her clothing slipped her mind, and she came dressed in black and white.
‘I didn’t realise until after I got to the track that day that I had the wrong dress,’ she later recalled.2
Kepitis took her place in the stands soon before 4 pm, hoping she hadn’t effected a Winx jinx — or put a hex on Sadler’s Lake for that matter.
While half the country’s focus was on the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where Hawthorn was en route to a third straight AFL grand final win against the West Coast Eagles, racing fans tuned in to Randwick as a mouth-watering Epsom began.
With Entirely Platinum setting a strong pace for Berry, Bowman eased Winx rearwards from gate twelve of fourteen to settle fourth-last. She was, however, forced to traverse extra ground in sitting three horses wide, though she at least had cover. But approaching the home turn, that traffic around her would cause Bowman and Winx backers a large amount of panic.
As Bowman eased wider, five and six wide, to start his run at the 600, Shinn and Kirramosa made a lightning charge from the rear to sweep around him and fence him in. Instead of easing into clear running, suddenly the raging favourite was blocked, with Kirramosa to his left and the sprinting Sons Of John in front.
Once, twice, Bowman dramatically took evasive action near the turn, reefing the mare’s head back to avoid her clipping the heels in front of her, with her balance and momentum torn to shreds. Spotting the drama on the TV he was watching, Waller closed his eyes. For a flash, he feared she might fall.
Winx stayed upright, but such a jolt can cause injury for a finely tuned thoroughbred. What was clear was her building run had been dashed as her rivals charged for the line, 420 metres away — a fate usually more than enough to end all hopes in such a field. Bowman grew more desperate to get his mount into the clear, his left elbow making contact with Shinn’s shoulder in those frantic moments.
At the 350, Winx still had only four horses behind her and nowhere to go. But at least this time, as a wall of six horses pushed madly for the lead, she was only three lengths away.
Finally, Bowman’s prayers were answered, and a gap began to open. As Kirramosa’s earlier burst took its toll to Bowman’s left, he had space to switch Winx across Sons Of John’s heels.
At the 250, she at last had a passage.
And at the 200, the race was all over. From this close behind, with her finishing power, anyone watching knew it would become a no-contest, a procession for racing’s new queen.
Hitting the lead at the 150, Winx skipped away with this, her second Group 1, a tickle with Bowman’s whip helping stretch what became a gaping two and a half length margin on the line. With twenty-five metres left, Bowman allowed himself a celebration, standing high in the irons and holding his whip aloft. After the post, he let out an unrestrained roar — part victory celebration over his first big Randwick mile, and partly a boyish whoop of delight about the ride he’d been on.
The way Winx had responded and overcome adversity to clinch the Theo Marks in the last bound had been full of merit. In this far greater challenge, she’d responded to more rough treatment with a victory that wasn’t just meritorious — it was imperious.
‘It was pretty scary there for a few strides,’ Bowman said. ‘She got stood on her head at the 450, but got herself regathered and composed and won with authority.’
Gai Waterhouse’s Ecuador took second ahead of Sons Of John, while Kepitis’ other runner Sadler’s Lake managed only ninth, one place behind Lucia Valentina.
Waller had just set another of his records. He’d become the first trainer to prepare the Doncaster–Epsom ‘triple double’, having won both big miles for three straight years. None of the other five winners impressed him as much as Winx, the first female favourite to win an Epsom in half a century.
‘For her to pick herself up after that and put herself back in the race before bursting through like she did, it was pretty special,’ an emotional Waller told a large media pack now buzzing over the best mare in the land.
‘It was an awful scrimmage turning for home. I admit I closed my eyes, hoping for the best, because all you hope is your horses come home well.
‘Her winning strike rate separates her from a lot of horses. She overcomes barrier draws, track conditions and distances. She had a long three-year-old year. She has been everywhere and she is still firing. For her to come back as a four-year-old is pretty special.’
Bowman’s forty-fourth Group 1 was soured slightly when stewards outed him for eight meetings for the contact he had made with Shinn. He’d miss Caulfield Cup day, but could hope to be back for Winx’s next start.
Waller was noncommittal when asked when that might be, saying only that she’d be sent to Melbourne for the rest of the spring, and should cope with her first anticlockwise racing.
Bookmakers, in no doubt what would happen, answered for him.
They turned Winx in — from $13 to $8 — for the race that for almost a century had defined Australasia’s champions: the W.S. Cox Plate.