Health first for Winx

THERE could be as little as 12 months left in the Winx adventure with the mighty mare’s owners conscious of making sure she lives a long healthy life in retirement.

An overseas campaign looks to be on the cards with trainer Chris Waller confirming during the week Winx had

5. SUNSHINE COAST GUINEAS

Winx wins by one-and-three-quarter lengths from Ulmann.

This was the race that started Winx’s incredible winning streak – and what a win it was.

Winx had been beaten in the ATC Australian Oaks over 2400m by Gust Of Wind and just over a month later, came back to 1600m for the Sunshine Coast Guineas. been nominated for the Japan Cup and inoculated for the trip.

The Japan Cup is in December, while an invitation to next year’s Royal Ascot carnival is also a certainty.

But Peter Tighe, one of Winx’s ownership trio, declared protecting their star, not chasing more prizemoney or trophies, was their priority.

Winx will become Austra- lia’s greatest stakes winner should she collect a third Cox Plate today and Tighe said anything after that would be a bonus.

“She has nothing to prove. If she wasn’t sound to continue on and it all finished tomorrow, well that’s how it is,” he said yesterday.

“But while it is going well, and we have the opportunity to look to the future and make some plans, that’s what we’ll do.

“But we’re also dealing with an animal, and while she is a finely tuned athlete, things can happen. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, and make plans we can’t commit fully to yet.

“We want to get this program out of the way, then she can go and have a spell and while she does we can make some plans again.” Tighe said Winx would tell them when she’d had enough, and they wouldn’t push her, because they wanted her to retire fit and healthy, and head to the breeding barn happy.

“We make sure she is fit and healthy and well and wants to keep racing. It probably has 12 months to play out,” he said.

“We are not going to race her forever. She has done the right thing by us and the racing public. If she puts in two bad runs that would be the end of it I think. We’re not going to try to squeeze every last dollar out of her.

“It’s about the mare, protecting her. We want her to live along, healthy and happy life after racing, and become a doting mother. She’ll do that better if she’s not run in to the ground.”