AS WINX ENJOYED A well-earned rest on a farm near Sydney, the laurels continued to flow.
One month after the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Chris Waller joined his magnificent mare in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, having also been inducted into the New Zealand version only three months earlier.
The 45-year-old, inexorably bound for his eighth straight Sydney premiership, took his place amid a historical timeline of the greats, including Tommy Smith, Bart Cummings, Colin Hayes and Lee Freedman. The honour roll also goes right back to Etienne De Mestre, who trained Archer to win the first two Melbourne Cups in 1861–62 and three later winners of the race, and Walter Hickenbotham, trainer of the titan of the late nineteenth century, Carbine.
It was an entirely fitting tribute for a man who had so emphatically come to dominate Sydney racing, and have a major impact in other states as well. Its significance was not lost on the thoughtful, meticulous and, as Winx watchers saw time and again, emotional Waller.
‘Premierships or big races that you win are very, very special and mean a lot at different times of your life or career,’ he said. ‘But to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is the best.
‘Knowing my work has basically been done in Australia and to be noticed in Australia . . . I think it is very, very special [and] emotional.’1
The honour capped a special week.
A few days earlier, a statement was released in Paris, from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. It was the latest list of World Thoroughbred Rankings, for May 2018.
After countless near misses, frustrating equivocal titles such as ‘the equal best horse in the world’, and ‘the fastest horse on turf’, it was finally put beyond doubt.
Winx the wonder mare was the best horse in the world.
Her Queen Elizabeth Stakes triumph had pushed her rating up one point, to 130, at last putting her alone at the top, with the retired Gun Runner still holding second. Winx had become only the second horse in the rankings’ history, after Black Caviar, to have rated 130 or higher in three successive calendar years. And again, there was scope for her to achieve greater dominance in the rankings during the following spring.
Having seen Winx, the filly he felt looked ‘no good’ after her Australian Oaks defeat three years earlier, finally reach the zenith of world racing, Waller could reflect once more on an incredible journey.
‘It is another amazing chapter in her career,’ he said. ‘There are so many great horses in the world and to think Winx is rated up there as the best is incredible. It is an absolute privilege to train her.’
***
As for the winner of the 2015 Australian Oaks, Gust Of Wind wouldn’t win again in nine attempts after taking that title. In fact, across her last four starts combined, she beat a sum total of one runner home. She would, however, carry two memorable claims to fame.
The first came before her Randwick triumph. She’d shot to YouTube stardom for racing nuts with a pure crazy win at her second start, albeit a lowly 1400-metre Scone maiden. She came from impossibly far back — fifteen lengths behind the leader and six lengths off second-last at the 900 — to snatch victory on the line.
The second was that she became known not so much as an Oaks winner, but by a far more momentous title.
As she went into retirement to start producing her own foals amid the verdant hills of the Hunter Valley, every so often someone would walk past, point to her and say: ‘See that horse there? That’s the last horse to beat Winx.’