Winx starts season in Chipping Norton Stakes at Royal Randwick

The Australian supermare Winx, winner of 22 consecutive races and a two-time Australian Horse of the Year, will have her first start of 2018 in Saturday’s Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

Nothing less than a victory will satisfy her legion of supporters.

The $467,100 Chipping Norton Stakes, run at a mile on turf, is familiar territory for the 7-year-old mare. Winx won the Chipping Norton Stakes the last two years for the seventh and 15th victories of her streak.

Saturday’s race has a post time of 3:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, or 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday. The Chipping Norton Stakes will be Winx’s first start since she became the second horse to win three consecutive runnings of the Group 1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne last October.

Winx was considered for the Group 2 Apollo Stakes on Feb. 17, but trainer Chris Waller scrapped the plan when jockey Hugh Bowman picked up a suspension that included that racing day. Bowman has ridden Winx in 20 wins during the streak and in her last 19 starts.

Winx won the Apollo Stakes in 2016 and again last year. In both cases, the Apollo Stakes was Winx’s first start after a break during the Australian summer.

Winx is part of a field of nine in the Chipping Norton. Wednesday, she was 1-12 with bookmakers to extend her winning streak.

Many handicappers will be reduced to finding horses to fill out the exacta or trifecta. Many of her rivals seem overmatched, or are using the race as a prep for longer races.

Prized Icon, who won the Group 1 Victoria Derby at Flemington Racecourse in 2016, will have his third start of the year. He was fourth in the Apollo Stakes at seven furlongs.

Waller has two other runners in the Chipping Norton – Libran and Who Shot the Barman.

Libran will have his first start since an eighth in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup at two miles in November. Who Shot the Barman, a 9-year-old gelding, has not raced since winning the Group 2 Moonee Valley Cup at 1 9/16 miles in October and is better suited to longer races.