Winx, the world-famous mare who has won 29 consecutive starts since May 2015, races for the first time in nearly four months in Saturday’s Group 2 Apollo Stakes at Royal Randwick racecourse outside of Sydney, Australia. Her return to action is eagerly anticipated by racing fans worldwide. This is expected to be Winx’s final season on the track. Judging from trainer Chris Waller’s opinion, Winx, 8, is ready for her comeback following a rest during the Australian summer. Winx will be heavily favored in the $177,800 Apollo Stakes at seven furlongs, a race she won in 2016 in 2017. Those wins were the sixth and 14th victories of her streak. Winx won the Group 1 Cox Plate for a record fourth time in October. Last month in London, Winx was recognized as the Longines World’s Best Racehorse with the British-based Cracksman. Waller said last month that Winx has retained her enthusiasm for racing. “She’s not showing any signs of slowing down, so we’ll see where it takes us,” Waller said in London. “When she went for her spell, she was still dominant – moving well and moving safely through to her performance on the racetrack and on the training track. “Who would’ve thought she’d still be so dominant now?” Winx’s winning streak includes races ranging in distance from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 3/8 miles. She has won five races at seven furlongs, the most recent of which was the Group 1 Winx Stakes – a race named in her honor – at Randwick last August, her first start in four months. On Saturday, jockey Hugh Bowman will have the mount on Winx, who is one of four females among the eight in the Apollo Stakes. There are four males, including Happy Clapper, the winner of the Group 1 Doncaster Mile last April. Happy Clapper, trained by Patrick Webster, was third to Winx in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes last April. Waller trains six of the eight runners. Of the fillies and mares, the Waller-trained Unforgotten will have her first start since an eighth in the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes in October. Unforgotten was sixth in the Winx Stakes last August and won the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes at a mile at Randwick last September. Unforgotten and the other six runners opposing Winx will have the nearly impossible assignment of holding off her devastating late run, which resulted in wins ranging in margin from a length to four lengths in her four-race campaign from mid-August to late October last year. In the coming months, Winx will remain in Australia. The Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on April 13 is a long-term goal, and a race Winx has won the last two years. “She’s expected by a massive following in Australia to keep racing at home,” Waller said. “She’s not just followed by racing people in Australia, she’s a household name. “I don’t think it’d be fair to them for her to have her final race in another part of the world. The fact is every horse can come to Australia.” – additional reporting by Marcus Hersh