The wonderful Australian racemare Winx will never break the all-time record for consecutive wins by a Thoroughbred. According to the Thoroughbred Times Racing Almanac, that number stands at 56, set by the Puerto Rican-bred Camarero (by Thirteen-Flint Maid, by Flint Shot) racing against other Puerto Rican-breds in the 1950s. To say the least, Camarero’s streak was not accomplished against top-class competition, and, to a lesser extent, the same can even be said for the great Hungarian mare Kincsem (Cambuscan-Water Nymph, by Cotswold), who raced unbeaten through 54 starts. Most of her races came in Hungary and Germany during the 1870s, and she only ventured to England for the Goodwood Cup and France for the Grand Prix de Deauville against higher-class foes. Next on the list at 39 wins is another Puerto Rican-bred who never ventured off the island, Galgo Jr. (Galgo-War Relief, by Granite), who raced in the 1930s. Thus Winx’s string of consecutive victories, which she extended to 29 with her fourth Group 1 W.S. Cox Plate last Saturday, is certainly the modern record and stands at number one among horses who competed only in countries whose best are considered up to international standard. Her compatriot Black Caviar (Bel Esprit-Helsinge, by Desert Sun) comes next with her unbeaten 25-race career, well clear of the modern record for a colt of 16 straight wins held jointly by Cigar (Palace Music-Solar Slew, by Seattle Slew) and Citation (Bull Lea-Hydroplane, by Hyperion). Frankel’s (Galileo-Kind, by Danehill) 14 unbeaten starts is the closest a modern colt has come to Black Caviar’s career of total domination. In the modern era, of course, colts will no longer stay in training long enough to win anything like 29 races in a row. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales Remarkably enough, next on the list of modern winning streaks is another all-time great daughter of Winx’s sire Street Cry. That, of course, would be Zenyatta (Street Cry-Vertigineux, by Kris S.), who rumbled undefeated through her first 19 starts before just failing to overhaul Blame from an impossible position in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Their sire Street Cry was, however, far from just a “filly sire.” Bred in Ireland by his owner, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Street Cry, by French champion 2-year-old Machiavellian out of Irish Oaks winner Helen Street, by Troy, won the 2002 Dubai World Cup and Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap. In a 12-year stud career that ended with his death at only 16 years old in 2014, Street Cry sired 125 black-type winners from 1,970 registered foals, a 6.3% strike rate, a figure a bit below the standard of most other sires with comparable accomplishments. Those 125 include 72 group or graded winners, and 20 Grade 1 winners. Of those 20, 11 were male and nine female. American juvenile champion and Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense (out of Bedazzle, by Dixieland Band) was his best son in the Northern Hemisphere, and champions Shocking (Maria de Castiglia, by Danehill) and Whobegotyou (Temple of Peace, by Carnegie) were his best sired in Australia. The common thread among those three male champions is that all three are out of mares by Northern Dancer line stallions, but neither of his two great daughters share that most common of all male lines as their broodmare sire line. Zenyatta’s broodmare sire, Kris S., was a descendant of and something of a physical avatar to Hail to Reason, while Winx’s dam, Vegas Showgirl, is by Al Akbar, a son of Success Express, the last champion produced by the now defunct Princequillo male line in America. Al Akbar, a Group 1 winner in New Zealand and Group 2 winner on his only start in Australia, sired 573 foals, including 18 black-type winners, and his daughters have produced only eight other black-type winners, including champion New Zealand Sprinter Start Wondering, by Eighth Wonder. Winx’s dam, Vegas Showgirl, was one of those 18 black-type winners, capturing two listed races and placing at the Group 3 level mostly in New Zealand. Vegas Showgirl has also produced Group 3 winner El Divino, by Snitzel, among her seven foals, but there is really nothing else of note along her female line until one reaches the great New Zealand champion El Khobar, by Gabador, a half-brother to her fourth dam. Her female line has been domiciled in the Antipodes since the 19th century. Winx has now won 33 of her 39 starts, earning the equivalent of $17,213,934, a record for a female Thoroughbred, and, frankly, one hopes the Cox Plate will be her last race. Having achieved her connections’ stated goal of winning a record fourth Cox Plate, it would be something approaching sacrilege for her to be beaten in an otherwise essentially meaningless race. What else does she have to prove?