WITH racing at Randwick postponed two days due to the extreme heat that was sweeping through eastern Australia on the weekend, the racing public had to wait till Monday to see if Winx could equal the legendary Phar Lap’s best winning streak of 14 straight wins.

Sent out a $1.14 favourite in the Group 2 Apollo Stakes, the same 1,400-metre event she resumed in last year, Winx settled mid-field before Hugh Bowman angled out on the bend to give her a clear sight down the straight.

Looming up on the leading trio, it was really just the last 150 metres where she laid down the law, surging away to string the field out and win by three lengths from the British-bred Authorized gelding Hartnell with the Irish-bred Lope De Vega entire Endless Drama third, a further four lengths away.

“You don’t just come here expecting to win,” said trainer Chris Waller. “It’s not that easy. We’re now at the stage where you are hoping she has a trouble-free run more than hoping she’s good enough. It’s going to take a champion to beat her, or for her to fail, and we’re just hoping those two things stay away. We’ll see her continue to improve through the autumn.”

Winx will most likely return to the racetrack on February 25th for the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes (1,600m), followed by the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1,500m) with potentially her final start of the autumn in the A$4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2,000m), a race she bypassed last year in favour of the handicap conditions of the Doncaster.

The response to Winx’s win was more tempered from Hugh Bowman whose thoughts were with family and friends who were battling bushfires close to his home town of Dunedoo in northern New South Wales.