Winx scores three-peat in Optic White Stakes, stretches win streak to 27

Winx extended her winning streak to 27 races with an emphatic victory in Saturday’s Group 1 Optic White Stakes at Royal Randwick, moving closer to an attempt at an historic fourth consecutive win in the Group 1 Cox Plate on Oct. 27.

No horse has won four runnings of the Cox Plate, Australia’s leading weight-for-age race, and Winx is already a massive favorite to win the turf race at 1 1/4 miles at Moonee Valley Racecourse.

There was nothing to fault about her performance in the $358,450 Optic White Stakes, a race known historically as the George Main Stakes. Ridden by regular rider Hugh Bowman, Winx (1-10) was briefly last in the one-mile race and rallied wide with an impressive turn of foot to prevail by four lengths over 15-1 Le Romain in the field of seven.

Trainer Chris Waller praised Bowman’s patient ride.

“Just a well-judged ride,” Waller said. “He knew he had that extra 10 percent that we see every start and gets her out of trouble, and that’s why the winning sequence continues. Unbelievable. She’s got some gears.”

Waller was asked to measure the magnitude of the winning streak, and the 7-year-old mare’s popularity.

“It keeps going to a new level every time,” he said. “She’s a superstar.”

Owned by a partnership, Winx’s winning streak began in the Group 3 Sunshine Coast Guineas in May 2015. She has won an astonishing 20 Group 1 races ranging in distance from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 3/8 miles on turf.

By Street Cry, Winx has won 31 of 37 starts. She may start in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Flemington Racecourse on Oct. 6 in advance of the Cox Plate. Winx won the Turnbull Stakes last October.

Winx has won the last three runnings of the Optic White Stakes. She is one of two horses to win three runnings of the Cox Plate, along with Kingston Town in 1980-82.