IT may have been a quiet week of racing on the track in Britain and Ireland, but not so much off it, or elsewhere.

The sport lost one of its modern legends in Moscow Flyer, twice a winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and who achieved his highest-ever Timeform rating of 184 in winning a vintage Tingle Creek Chase in 2004.

Moscow Flyer was in retirement, and that is where this year’s Derby winner Harzand is heading. Things didn’t always go Harzand’s way, but it is difficult to rate him as better than an average classic winner on what happened on the track, and he never bettered his 111 timefigure from Epsom.

Still very much alive, kicking, and fully operational is Australian superstar Winx, who made it 13 wins in a row with a hugely impressive eight-length win over Hartnell in the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, a performance which earned her a 133 rating from the Australian wing of the Timeform operation.

By comparison, no female racehorse has been rated higher in Timeform’s history than Winx’s compatriot Black Caviar (136) in 2013, and Winx could now legitimately be considered the best active performer in the world, given that she would get a sex allowance if running against the likes of California Chrome (136), Frosted (134) or A Shin Hikari (133).

There will be a few breathing a sigh of relief that Winx seems unlikely to try to “do a Black Caviar” by travelling to Royal Ascot in 2017.