HEARTBURN for her fans and windburn for her rivals. Again Winx left it to the last moment to secure her 19th straight win, this time in the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes over 1,600 metres at Randwick.

Sent out an unbackable $1.09 favourite, the daughter of Street Cry had to contend with the daring tactics of the Gerald Ryan-trained Red Excitement who was allowed to free-roll in front, opening up an eight-length advantage with half the race remaining.

Having to chase, Winx could see her quarry but seemed to be struggling. Slipping around the bend Red Excitement looked to have stolen it only for Winx to hurtle home the final 150 metres to win by a length, a margin unimaginable at the top of the straight.

“I thought I had pulled it off,” said Josh Parr, who rode the Excites gelding. “He is in such great form at the moment. He deserves a big win. Today he has just run into possibly the greatest ever.” Third five lengths away, was the Shocking gelding Chocante.

“I just wanted to see her come out of the barriers okay,” said an emotional Chris Waller, reflecting on her blunder to miss the start two weeks earlier. “You can see what she means to me and that’s just the start of the race. With 400 metres to run I thought I was more concerned today than I was first-up. They turned the race on.

“It’s never what you like to see when you’ve got a horse like her chasing but fair play to them. It just proved that she is at her best and it’s pretty hard to beat a horse at their best.”

Waller added that Winx will now head to the George Main Stakes over the same distance at Rosehill on September 16th time, giving him the option of missing a race deeper into her preparation if required.