All is in tip top order with Winx who completed her final gallop at Rosehill this morning for the Group 1 $4m Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Winx, above, has come through her final gallop before the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in great order. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Trainer Chris Waller has reported that everything has worked out beautifully with Winx’s Sydney Autumn Carnival campaign and the Queen Of The Turf is ready to peak for her Grand Final appearance on day two of ‘The Championships’.
“(She worked) very good, Waller said.
“It is the eve before the Longines Queen Elizabeth on Saturday and it’s been a long preparation to get this far and everything has gone to plan so just two more days to go before the big day on Saturday.”
“This morning’s work out was just making sure everything is working, making sure that Hugh Bowman was happy with her.’
“You get their breathing right, make sure that they are focused and moving well and just keeping the pre-race nerves off the horse like you do with the trainer and the jockey and making sure everything is in order.”
“She already has had three races this preparation, but this is the race that we have been building towards basically since she won the Cox Plate in the Spring.”
“It’s The Championships, it’s the time when all the best horses get together and obviously she is in great form and needs to win again.”
Waller has meticulously planned out a four run Autumn Campaign for Winx who has delivered to date with victories in the Group 2 $250,000 The Star Apollo Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on February 13, in the Group 1 $600,000 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on February 25 and in the Group 1 $1m China Horse Club George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on March 18.
While Waller said that Winx has had a trouble free preparation, the two times Cox Plate winner is listed in the gear changes to race with Synthetic hoof filler in her off fore hoof for the first time in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and he explains why.
“She has, in human terms, had her nails strengthened,” Waller said.
“There’s no hole, there are no problems. It is simply a filler over a small portion – probably 10 per cent of the hoof.”
“It smooths it and gives the farrier a good quality wall to put the nails in to hold the shoes in place safely so that it can’t rip away or tear away so it’s more of a precaution than anything else.”
Winx has won twenty of her twenty-six race starts, being undefeated from her last sixteen, and is marked as the $1.09 favourite for the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ladbrokes.com.au to make it seventeen in a row.
On the second line of betting at $11 is the John O’Shea trained Hartnell ahead of the Ranvet Stakes third placegetter The United States at $18 and the Doncaster Mile runner up Happy Clapper at $19.
