How everyday food can cure your ailments

Broccoli for arthritis

This vegetable is an “arthritis-fighting champion”, says Lynne McTaggart, author of Arthritis – Drug Free Alternatives to Prevent and Reverse Arthritis.

“Sulforaphane, a compound in the vegetable, slows the destruction of joint cartilage by blocking enzymes and interfering with the inflammatory processes associated with osteoarthritis.”

Researchers from the University of East Anglia found eating a handful every day might prevent the disease or slow its progress once it’s been diagnosed.

Dark chocolate for mood

The darker the chocolate, the better. Findings published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience suggest that chocolate can not only boost mood but can even help reduce the symptoms of depression because it increases levels of several mood-boosting brain chemicals.

Mushrooms for colds

Mushrooms contain more of an immuneboosting antioxidant called ergothioneine – which can help to ward off colds and other viruses – than any other food, say researchers at Pennsylvania State University.

In fact, button mushrooms contain 12 times more of this powerful property than wheatgerm and four times more than chicken liver – the next richest sources.

...And chicken soup!

The old wives tale is true. Research reported in the American Journal of Therapeutics found that carnosine – present in chicken soup – could help the immune system fight off the flu virus in its early stages. Slurping hot, steamy soup also helps to clear congestion.

Cinnamon for travel sickness

“Added to a snack or meal, cinnamon has an antimicrobial action that helps with digestion, calms stomach muscles and also helps prevent motion sickness,” says Shona Wilkinson, nutritionist at SuperfoodUK.com

Watermelon to boost libido

“Watermelon is packed with the phyto-nutrient citrulline which increases the body’s level of nitric oxide,” explains Shona. “In turn, this relaxes blood vessels and increases blood circulation. These two elements combined, can decrease the amount of time it takes to become aroused.”

Spinach for period pain

“Women with diets high in plant foods, such as spinach and kale, have fewer painful periods because these foods are rich in magnesium,” says Linda Booth, digestive health expert and advisor to Pink Parcel (www.pinkparcel.co.uk).

“A deficiency in this vital mineral can cause spasms in the uterus and in the smooth muscle tissue of the bowel, contributing to period pain and constipation.”

Sage for hot flushes

This garden herb has traditionally been used to relieve hot flushes, says Alison Cullen, nutritionist at A. Vogel (www. avogel.co.uk).

“Research shows sage somehow interacts with the hypothalamus – the control unit of temperature regulation in your brain. It can be taken either

during the day to help reduce daytime flushes or before bed if night sweats disrupt your sleep.” (A Vogel Menoforce – £12.9 99 for 30 tablets from Boots).

Marmite to prevent dementia

Resarchers from the University of York found the high concentration of Vitamin B12 in the yeast extract increases levels of chemicals in the brain which are thought to protect against neurological disorders. Participants who ate a teaspoon of Marmite per day were found to have increased levels of a neurotransmitter known as GABA, said to calm the brain and soothe the effects of anxiety – with the effects still present eight weeks later, suggesting Marmite could have a long-term impact on the body.

Pineapple for pain

This fruit has a powerful antiinflammatory effect – offering pain relief from conditions like arthritis. “Pineapples contain an enzyme called bromelain which has antiinflammatory activity and has found some success in relieving joint paint and osteoarthritis,” says Shona.

Manuka honey for skin

“Skin care products that contain certain ingredients, like sodium lauryl sulfate, can cause eczema to flare up,” warns Sally Temple Nuffield Health Nutritional Therapist. “Manuka honey can be a helpful alternative because it naturally contains antibacterial, antifungal and antiseptic properties. “Either eat a small amount each day or apply it to the skin.”

Cherry juice for better sleep

Sports Nutritionist, Anita Bean, says: “Cherries are powerhouses of nutrients, packed with vitamins, minerals, fibre and phytonutrients.” They also contain melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate our sleep patterns.

Researchers found that drinking tart cherry juice (tart cherries contain more melatonin than sweet cherries) 30 minutes after waking and 30 minutes before the evening meal boosted sleep time by 84 minutes and improved sleep quality in people with insomnia.

Blueberries for memory

“Blueberries may boost learning and memory due to the high levels of flavonoids, in particular anthocyanins, they contain. These are thought to protect against oxidative stress (free radical damage) in the brain,” explains Shona.

Celery for immunity

A rich source of flavonoids including zeaxanthin, lutein, and betacarotene, celery reduces inflammation and enhances the immune system, explains nutritionist Libby Limon (www. libbylimoncom).

“It supports the gut flora with prebiotics and can enhance and mobilise the body’s infection fighting white blood cells.”

Artichokes for cholesterol

Artichokes are extremely high in antioxidants, says Alison. In studies, patients with high cholesterol given artichoke leaf extract achieved a 10% reduction in ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol.

Onions for fighting infections

Onions, like garlic, contain allicin which is a powerful natural antibiotic and has also been found to protect the circulatory system. They’re effective for colds, flu, chest, stomach and urinary infections, and have even been known to help with arthritis, rheumatism and gout, says naturopath Michael van Straten, author of a series of Superfood books. They also contain a compound called quercetin, which promotes ‘good’ cholesterol and may have cancer-fighting properties.

Herbs and spices for memory

Saffron, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, peppermint, basil and parsley all contain stimulating substances that boost bloodflow to the brain. Sage, in particular, can help boost memory, say researchers from the Medicinal Plant Research Centre.

Kiwi fruit for vision

A surprisingly good source of lutein – an antioxidant commonly found in eggs and dark green vegetables – that protects against impaired vision. Research reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology has found that eating lutein-rich foods can lower the incidence of eye diseases such as cataracts and macular degeneration (a breakdown of the central portion of the retina) – the most common cause of poor sight in older people in the UK.

Cherries for gout

US researchers have found that the natural compounds in fresh cherries significantly reduce bodily chemicals which cause joint inflammation and pain. Blood levels of urate – which accumulates in the joints causing gout – plummeted five hours after eating. And contributory chemicals responsible for joint inflammation also decreased after a breakfast of 45 cherries.

Watercress to fight breast cancer

Containing over 50 vital vitamins and minerals, gram for gram watercress has more calcium than milk, more Vitamin C than oranges, more Vitamin E than broccoli and more folate than bananas. In fact, medical research is investigating how a plant compound found in watercress – PEITC (phenethyl isothiocyanate) – may have the ability to suppress breast cancer cell development by ‘turning off’ a signal in the body and thereby starving the growing tumour of essential blood and oxygen.

Dress to IMPRESS

The Nubia M2 is a case of great hardware design let down by poor software and unfortunate pricing

You know what they say about first impressions. When you first lay eyes on the Nubia M2, it is hard not to appreciate it on some level. Unboxing it to see the sleek black pane of glass with gold accents on the sides and a hint of red around the camera and below the display, you can tell that some thought went into its design. This is a phone that makes you notice it, and want to like it.

The specsheet is no joke either. The M2 comes with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display panel, a respectable Snapdragon 625 processor, which is known to perform well with 1080p displays like the one on this phone, 4GB RAM, 64GB onboard storage and a beefy 3,630mAh battery to back it all up. So far so good.

Turn it on, and the phone displays a large canvas of bright image thumbnails — hinting at its camera prowess — as it’s got a dual 13MP camera setup at the back and a 16megapixel front-facing sensor.

Interface experience

Unfortunately for this phone that we really wanted to like, this is where things begin to go downhill. Nowadays, most users — and even manufacturers — have realised that keeping Android close to stock form is usually preferred, with add-ons inserted only if they really make a difference. Nubia did not get this memo, and saddled this otherwise great-looking phone with its clunky Nubia UI V4.0. The smaller issue here is that this UI is baked on top of the ageing Android 6.0.1 with the security patch last updated in March, with no updates available as of writing. The larger one is that Nubia UI seems a little unpolished. Sure, there’s enough added functionality to make Samsung’s TouchWiz from five years back look underpopulated, but even most of these features don’t seem to solve any real problems. The UI offers edge-based gestures for everything from app switching to reducing screen brightness, but the phone’s regular, non-curvy screen makes using them a difficult feat to accomplish. For example, double-clicking the narrow left edge takes you back one screen, which feels more convoluted than just using the traditional, and swappable, back key below the display. The point here is, in an age where phone UIs are about intuitive interactions, learning these extra features feels more like mastering your favourite fighting video game character’s moveset. The names of some of the settings, which seem like they were labelled for the ease of developers and forgotten about later, don’t help its case either.

Our complaints with the UI aside, the phone goes about day-to-day tasks with relative fluidity, and we didn’t have trouble getting anything done. The display is not the brightest or sharpest, but does offer some colour-tuning options, and while the fingerprint sensor takes a second to unlock the screen, it was usually accurate.

The daily grind

On the camera side, things get murky again. The dual cameras let the M2 do the depth effect portrait shots that are all the rage these days, but the software can get confused in identifying the subject’s edges.

The image quality in low light is nothing great; however, the M2 does manage to resolve a decent amount of detail in bright outdoor environments. 4K video from the rear camera is also good in the right lighting, and for those who enjoy fiddling with settings, there is a Pro mode included.

In general, the M2 per- forms rather decently, and lasts a long time, thanks to its efficient chipset and screen combination and large battery. The reason we’re being a bit hard on it is its price — which is ₹21,499, and therefore makes it a hard sell. While it has the looks to justify this, the sub-par software experience is what you would expect of a phone in a much lower price bracket.

Interestingly, the M2 Lite model, which sacrifices one rear camera, and downgrades to a 720p screen and a slower processor with a 3,000mAh battery, while retaining similar design and storage options, is priced a full ₹10,000 lower, which makes the UI experience a lot more acceptable.

If you’re looking for a phone in this price range, the Moto Z Play or the slightly more expensive OnePlus 3T (while stocks last) make for far more value for money.

A vacation minus a smartphone

While living without a connection to the digital world can seem daunting at first, there are benefits to leaving technology at home

Two weeks ago, my smartphone shut down because of a low battery as I was about to board a flight to Europe. That seemed odd, given that I had barely used it that day. I plugged it in on the plane, but seven hours later, it still wasn’t functioning. When I arrived at my hotel I tried a different charger, to no avail. The phone was dead – terminally so, it turned out. I hadn’t brought a laptop, so I had no access to the internet or e-mail. I had no camera, no guidebooks, no maps. I took a deep breath and decided to make the best of it. I’m hardly a smartphone addict. I rarely look at social media. I had happily travelled in Europe in the years before cellphones. I decided to emulate the movie star Eddie Redmayne, who last year said he had given up his smartphone in order to live “in the moment.” For the next 10 days, I lived without my phone or any other connection to the digital world. There were indeed many compensations. But it was hard to shake a free-floating anxiety that some disaster loomed. (How would I retrieve my return flight reservations from a non-working cellphone?) Lately, the big internet companies have come under a barrage of criticism for invading privacy, carrying fake news, spreading hate messages (and selling ads against them) and undermining American democracy. What I learned is that, for better or worse, they have so changed the world that life without them is all but impossible outside a monastery. Road maps, a mainstay of my precellphone trips to Europe, were nowhere to be found, nor were the bookstores that used to sell them. The rental-car agency in Milan offered a guide for getting out of the airport, but that was about it. Everyone assumes you have access to Google Maps. Once you’re off the major highways, Italian roads are a spiderweb connected by roundabouts, bristling with signs pointing to the nearest tiny villages but lacking any route numbers. The tried-and-true method of asking for directions prompted some human interaction and gave my travelling companion the opportunity to practise his Italian. But it was a reminder that human beings are often unreliable. The rental-car agent in Milan gave us directions to Siena via Genoa, a route, we later learned, that added about two hours to the trip. Trying to find a house in the Tuscan countryside by asking passersby was futile. No one in rural Italy seems to use street addresses, which, in any event, don’t correspond in any rational way to actual streets. Living in the moment isn’t so great when you’re lost. While I had no phone of my own, others with me had theirs, and I had to rely on them on several occasions, starting with simply finding our house. We had to call the housekeeper for directions (three times). After that, I relied on borrowed phones, and we used Google Maps for navigation. I shared my experience this week with Adam Alter, an associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. “One problem for people who choose to be without phones is, as you found, that people expect you to have one, and infrastructure is designed with the knowledge that almost everyone does,” Alter said. “You’re borderline forced to carry one for basic utility even if you’d prefer not to.” Without access to texts or e-mail, I couldn’t see or respond to any messages, no matter how important. I waited three days before breaking down and (again) borrowing a cellphone to check e-mail. But to gain access to my e-mail from an unfamiliar device required a code sent via text to – where else? – my dead cellphone. Once I gave that up, I was fine, perhaps because I didn’t feel any guilt – it wasn’t my fault the phone failed and I couldn’t check messages. For others, this may be difficult: Alter’s book reports that checking e-mails has become a widespread addiction. At first I missed my phone’s camera feature. I was on holiday in a beautiful country, after all. But after a few days I stopped thinking about documenting the trip and simply enjoyed it. Without internet access, I had no access to travel mainstays such as TripAdvisor or OpenTable. But there were some old guidebooks at the house where we stayed, and major historic sites, tourist attractions and even restaurants don’t change much in a place such as Italy. I found it’s not hard to sniff out a promising restaurant that appeals to your personal taste, as opposed to crowdsourced recommendations. We made some wonderful discoveries. And afterward, there were no e-mails asking me to review the experience (and provide sites such as TripAdvisor with free editorial copy). Alter pointed out that “this sort of serendipity is often the route to novel, exciting, trip-making experiences.” “Phones overschedule and over regiment our lives, which robs us of these opportunities,” he added. I quickly grew accustomed to having no news, stock-market quotes or weather forecasts. I’d never want to live permanently without them, but checking out for 10 days was therapeutic. I read nothing about Donald Trump. Still, I broke down midweek when the housekeeper asked me what I knew about Harvey Weinstein. The accusations of the movie producer’s serial sexual misconduct had broken the day after I left, and was now blanketing Italian media. I knew nothing. So I borrowed a phone and read The New York Times account and then The New Yorker piece that followed. Both were riveting but interfered with what had, until then, been blissfully untroubled sleep. After returning the rental car in Milan, I realized that no phone meant no Uber app. That meant we did a lot of walking in what turns out to be a fascinating city. And my anxieties about my return trip proved unfounded. I skipped the check-in kiosks at the airport, went to the check-in counter and got an old-fashioned paper boarding pass with minimum fuss. I’d never leave home without a working smartphone again. But de- nied access to the internet, I had time to read several books. I focused more on the people with me and the beauty of my surroundings. I was more open to unplanned experiences. I had time for self-reflection. I’d like to think that, on future trips, I’d use the phone only when essential. It turns out there’s an app to help people do that. Called Moment, from the software developer Kevin Holesh, it is designed to curb cellphone dependence and promote “a sustainable work life balance,” as he puts it, by letting users set limits on their phone and internet use. (Put aside, for the moment, the paradox of needing a phone app to break you of your phone addiction.) “Recently, I spent two weeks in a place without cellphone coverage and had a similar experience to you,” Holesh told me. “It was really inconvenient not to have Maps, but refreshing to not constantly be worrying about what’s going on. “It was literally the longest stretch of time I’ve not accessed the internet in 15 years,” he continued. “The first few days were tough, but after that, I got used to the lack of connectivity and loved it.”

Amazon gets 238 proposals

NEW YORK — Amazon said Monday that it received 238 proposals from cities and regions in the U.S., Canada and Mexico hoping to be the home of the company’s second headquarters.

The online retailer kicked off its hunt for a second home base in September, promising to bring 50,000 new jobs and spend more than $5 billion on construction. Proposals were due last week, and Amazon made clear that tax breaks and grants would be a big deciding factor on where it chooses to land.

Amazon.com Inc. did not list which cities or metro areas applied, but said the proposals came from 43 U.S. states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, three Mexican states and six Canadian provinces.

Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Halifax and Calgary are some of the Canadian cities that submitted proposals.

Besides looking for financial incentives, Amazon had stipulated that it was seeking to be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be able to attract top technical talent; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and be able to expand that headquarters to more than 740,000 sq. metres in the next decade.

Generous tax breaks and other incentives can erode a city’s tax base. For the winner, it could be worth it, since an Amazon headquarters could draw other tech businesses and their well-educated, highly paid employees.

In New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie has endorsed Newark’s bid, saying the state and the city are planning nearly $7 billion in tax breaks. Detroit bid organizers have said its proposal offers Amazon the unique chance to set up shop in both the U.S. and Canada. Missouri officials proposed an innovation corridor between Kansas City and St. Louis rather than a single location.

The seven U.S. states that Amazon said did not apply were: Arkansas, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

Ahead of the deadline, some cities turned to stunts to try to stand out: Representatives from Tucson, Ariz., sent a 6.4-metre tall cactus to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters; New York lit the Empire State Building orange to match Amazon’s smile logo.

The company plans to remain in its sprawling Seattle headquarters, and the second one will be “a full equal” to it, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in September. Amazon has said that it will announce a decision sometime next year.

China committed to making world green again

China’s pursuit of modernization is aimed at establishing total harmony between human beings and nature, said General Secretary Xi Jinping in his holistic report at the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on Oct 18.

Adding that more efforts are needed to boost green growth, reduce pollution, protect the ecosystem and reform the ecological supervision system, Xi said China’s ecosystem will see fundamental improvements between 2020 and 2035. That goal is in line with the country’s pledge to cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent from the 2005 level by 2030. It also honors the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and manifests China’s inclination to build an ecological civilization.

Over the past five years China has been scrupulously developing an eco-friendly economic growth model, by adapting a green, lowcarbon approach, and its efforts seem to be paying off.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15), the country reduced its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 20 percent, which is roughly 2.34 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to World Resources Institute.

China’s industrial sector, which accounts for 70 percent of its total carbon emissions, is expected to see major improvements as progress has been made in nourishing the service sector and reducing the industry’s dependence on energy, especially fossil fuels. For example, the service sector accounted for 51.6 percent of China’s GDP in 2016, about 11.8 percentage points higher than the industrial sector.

Consumption of fossil fuels, particularly coal, has shrunk accordingly as the country taps into renewable resources. By 2015, China had an installed non-fossil fuel energy generation capacity of 1,525 gigawatts, almost three times more than in 2005. By the end of last year, it had an installed capacity of 77 gigawatts of photovoltaic power; the figure for 2011 was just 2 gigawatts. And coal accounted for 63.7 percent of total energy consumption in 2015, 8.7 percentage points lower than in 2005.

Since 2011 at least 87 low-carbon pilot cities across the country have been working on green development. Most of them aspire to reach their peak carbon emissions before 2030; cities including Beijing and Guangzhou in South China’s Guangdong province even intend to achieve that goal by 2020.

China also aims to become the world’s largest market for carbon emission permits, which refers to the buying and selling of carbon permits and credits to emit carbon dioxide. The seven pilot cities traded permits for 120 million tons of carbon dioxide worth 3.2 billion yuan ($492 million) by last September, and a nationwide carbon trading market is underway.

The Paris Climate Agreement is aimed at keeping the average global rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5 C. That said, global greenhouse gas emission is expected to peak by 2020, and China, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, is likely to make a big difference to it with its emissionreduction endeavors at home and abroad.

The 20 billion yuan SouthSouth Cooperation Fund on Climate Change marks a historic move for Beijing, which has also promised to help developing countries build low carbon demonstration areas, provide personnel training and donate energysaving renewable energy facilities. And the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which shares the low-carbon ambition, will help the country to keep contributing to global green growth now that the United States has withdrawn from the Paris agreement.

Surely, the vision and approach are a timely update of the three-step strategy of Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s for China’s modernization. They are encouraging in that they could positively reshape the world’s power structure.

In fact, one day after Xi delivered the speech, European Union leaders gathered in Brussels for their two-day “autumn summit”. Although the EU leaders meet regularly under the framework of the European Council, which decides the bloc’s political direction, an important outcome of last week’s EU meeting was, to some extent, similar to Xi’s 2050 vision as the EC unequivocally endorsed the “Leaders’ Agenda” drafted by EC President Donald Tusk.

But in essence, the EU still seems obsessed with crisis management, as the aim of this concrete work is to prepare a guide for the bloc to negotiate the Brexit talks, and resolve the migration crisis, strengthen internal security, implement eurozone reforms and improve trade. Tusk’s approach is praiseworthy, not least because he knows what should be high on his political agenda.

Still, Tusk can and should do more, especially as the world is still wondering what the future has in store for the EU and people in the EU have the right to know what the lives of their children and grandchildren be like.

The EU badly needs a blueprint, for example, to close the development gap between Western and Eastern Europe, because one of the most important principles of the bloc is to ensure people within the vast geographical boundary of the EU lead the same quality of life.

Xi has already made it clear in his speech that the Party’s main mission is to resolve the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life to ensure everybody leads a prosperous and beautiful life.

The next China-EU summit will be held in Beijing next year. And EU leaders would do good to study Xi’s speech to understand where the Party gets its longterm vision from and whether it is, even partly, applicable to the EU, for that would give them more material to work for the success of the China-EU summit.

The EU leaders should study Xi’s speech also to explore what opportunities China would offer once it evolves into a great modern socialist country by 2050, which could be a new and important incentive for further improving China-EU relations.

What they say

The inspirational success of winning a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics should be attributed to a series of reforms taken in the game, such as developing young talent and building a scientific support system. Hopefully, we can carry forward the fighting spirit embodied by the women’s volleyball team to contribute to sports development in our country. Wei Qiuyue, retired volleyball player

The top leadership of our country has reiterated that building a strong education system is the fundamental project of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. World-class universities should put cultivation of world-class talent at the core of their development in a system where academic teaching, core values and occupational skills training are combined. Jin Donghan, president of Shanghai University

China’s military technologies are being used in ways to improve people’s everyday lives. Scientists have a duty to serve the military and national defense, but also to help ordinary people. Xue Chenyang, professor at North University of China From this project, we can see that a strong nation can make the dream of building a giant telescope come true with its economic, technological and manufacturing power. So our dreams are in line with the country’s dream. Zhang Shuxin, deputy general manager of the Five-hundredmeter Aperture Spherical Telescope

When I return home, I will tell people about the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress. I will also lead my fellow sisters to make better art and more beautiful ceramics, which will gain more fans for Chinese ceramics, our city and Jiangxi province. Qiu Saizhen, ceramics artist in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province

Everybody has felt that China is increasingly secure. To be frank, that was not achieved easily. The number of police officers in our country is less than half that of those in developed countries. Much of the work has been fulfilled with excellence. For a nation with more than 1.3 billion people on 9.6 million square kilometers of land, it’s challenging to keep such a high level of security, but we have confidence. Li Bei, political commissar of the public order management department of the Loudi public security bureau, Hunan province

THERE’S NO STOPPING HER

THEY call it track work and for most horses, it is exactly that: they have to work hard to get fit. But Winx isn’t most horses. Where others might fight the bit and flail at the ground, she floats over it.

For her, it doesn’t look like work at all until the last 400m, when her dance partner Hugh Bowman allows her a fraction more rein and she eats up the ground with unnerving ease.

Unnerving, that is, for other horses and their connections, which is why only a handful will face her on Saturday in the title fight known as the Cox Plate.

Watching the world’s best turf galloper “work” is like watching Ali in the gym at his peak, toying with mere boxers. Or George Best making a soccer ball look as if it’s magnetised and his feet are the magnets.

There probably weren’t many ballet experts at Moonee Valley yesterday morning but had there been, they might reckon Winx is up there with that great northern dancer, Nijinsky. Which figures, given Nijinsky (the greatest son of Northern Dancer) is in her pedigree.

Pedigrees matter in sales catalogues but lose relevance in racing stables because every horse has one more distinguished than that of trainers, jockeys and most owners. Bar maybe the Queen, Arab sheiks and the Aga Khan.

On the track, handsome is as handsome does and Winx does probably as well as any horse ever has. It was this elegant action — some experts call it “economical” — that caught Melbourne racegoers’ eyes two years ago, when the then lightlyraced and lightly-built fouryear-old made her first appearance at Breakfast with the Best.

B Beforef sheh was saddledddl d thath day, she looked narrow and leggy. But then again, so do antelope. That morning, she cruised where others toiled, her “daisy-cutting” action forecasting the nonchalant way she disposed of a Cox Plate field that year and again last year.

“A sweet mover” said one veteran watcher yesterday, studying her as the No.1 saddlecloth swept past about as quietly as any horse has ever galloped at 60kmh. “Like most good horses, she’s light on her feet,” he added, as Bowman let her stride strongly a long way past the post.

Winx, in fact, is lighter on her feet than most racehorses, let alone most champions. Whereas nearly all the great gallopers are distinguished by their ability to lengthen their stride, Winx lifts the tempo.

Bike racers would understand it. Instead of cranking up a higher gear and pushing harder to get more length out of each movement, when Bowman gives the nod Winx increases the “cadence”: she fits 14 strides into every five seconds; normal horses do 12.

This makes her different from Black Caviar who, although a sprinter, relied on a long stride for her superiority. Winx the versatile middle distance specialist, who has won at every trip from 1100m to 2200m, “picks ’em up and puts ’em down”d ” as nimblyi bl as a much smaller athlete.

Moonee Valley’s Cox Plate breakfast has become an institution. Those who have gone there every spring have several times been rewarded with glimpses of something special.

One year it was a twoyear-old colt that looked a year older, as dominant in the class of 2001 as a six-footer with whiskers and tattoos playing against schoolboys. His name was Bel Esprit and he belied a bargain price and a dodgy knee to carve his name that spring and the next before passing on the sprinting genes. Take a bow, Black Caviar.

Then there was the horse from heaven. When the great Saintly stretched out that morning in 1996, everyone knew they had seen a natural-born Cup horse trained by a naturalborn Cup trainer, Bart Cummings. When the chestnut juggernaut won the Cox Plate on his way to Flemington, we realised he was more than that.

We will never know how good Saintly might have been if he had stayed sound as long as Winx has. But if she wins her third Cox Plate this Saturday, she’s entitled to be spoken of in the same sentence as Phar Lap and Tulloch and Kingston Town. And the same reverence.

Go you good thing.