Make it 31! Winx extends win streak in Chipping Norton

If there’s truth in the saying that all good things must come to an end, well, perhaps that’s another measure of Winx’s greatness.

The mare’s streak lived on Friday evening — Saturday afternoon at Australia’s Royal Randwick — with Winx a winner of her fourth straight Chipping Norton Stakes (G1) and 31st race overall in a run dating back to 2015.

This particular victory came with some unexpected difficulty as Happy Clapper, facing Winx for a 10th time in his career, sprinted to the lead and held it until the final strides. Winx's turn of foot prevailed in the end as Hugh Bowman took her past in a hand ride.

"At the 700 (meters mark) you would have thought she's out of business," Bowman said. "Another jockey riding her may have thought that...There's no way Happy Clapper was going to sustain that speed. I knew when I balanced up, she'd have the energy required to reel him in.

"I'll be honest: although I was pushing her, she did it with relative ease, and I think had struck her as I have before, she would have easily been another few lengths from him."

Winx finished the mile around one bend in 1:33.27.

Along with Happy Clapper, Winx faced many of the same foes as in her season-opening Apollo Stakes (G1) victory last month, with all but one of six rivals also from trainer Chris Waller’s stable.

Waller said he nonetheless woke up with the regular race morning butterflies. Then he watched that Apollo Stakes replay.

“She won easy first up, so that settled the nerves a little bit,” he said.

There were anxious moments aside from when Happy Clapper held an open-lengths lead into the stretch. Winx acted up a bit in the gate, and the Waller stablemate Libran reared up to the point that the start was delayed for a vet's examination.

"She was a little agitated today," Bowman said, "more so than she has been recently. Fortunately (they gates) didn't open."

This continues to be a race-at-a-time campaign with Winx now 8 years old. If all goes well, more race defenses, of the March 23 George Ryder (G1) and April 13 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1), await Winx before her retirement.

“I can see the sun going down," Waller said, "and hopefully we can get through two more races.”