Winx
What if a horse was so good that the question stopped being “will she win?” and became “how far?”
33 consecutive wins. 25 Group 1 victories. Four Cox Plates. $26.4 million in prize money. For four years, Winx didn't just win races — she made watching horse racing feel like witnessing something outside the normal rules of sport.
43 starts, 37 wins · 33 consecutive wins · 25 Group 1 wins (world record) · $26.4M in prize money
The Horse
The Unlikely Beginning
Winx was bought for $230,000 at the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling sale — a decent price but nothing extraordinary. Her name came from her dam “Vegas Showgirl” — the idea that men in the front row of Las Vegas shows would wink at the dancers.
She started her career with three wins, then hit a wall — winning only one of her next seven starts. Nobody at that point predicted what was coming.
The turning point came during the 2015 Brisbane Winter Carnival, when she won the Queensland Oaks at Doomben. It was her first Group 1 win and the start of the most remarkable streak in racing history.
Magic Millions
The Streak
From May 2015 to April 2019, Winx won 33 consecutive races — every single one a stakes race, most under elite weight-for-age conditions. She won four Cox Plates at Moonee Valley (no horse had ever won more than three). She won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes three times. She won the Chipping Norton, George Ryder, and George Main Stakes four times each.
At her peak, her official world rating made her the highest-rated turf horse on the planet.
Four Cox Plates
The People Behind the Horse
Unlike many champion racehorses owned by racing empires, Winx was owned by a small, likeable group: Peter and Patty Tighe (Magic Bloodstock), Debbie Kepitis (daughter of legendary owner Bob Ingham), and Richard Treweeke.
Trainer Chris Waller — a New Zealander who’d built his reputation in Sydney — has since spoken openly about the gut-churning pressure he felt as the streak grew, the fear of defeat or injury with every start.
Jockey Hugh Bowman described her as “the best I have had anything to do with” and spoke of her remarkable will to win and her awareness of other horses on the track. Bowman won the 2017 Longines World’s Best Jockey award, largely thanks to his partnership with Winx.
Racing Science
The Pressure of Perfection
As the streak grew, so did the pressure. Waller later revealed the emotional toll of preparing a horse who the entire nation expected to win every time she stepped onto a track. One of the most revealing moments came when the team withdrew Winx from a race for joint surgery — a procedure that technically could have been delayed, but which Waller and the vets prioritised for her long-term welfare over short-term glory. She returned from that surgery and kept winning.
Then came the 2017 Warwick Stakes.
She was left at the barriers and missed the start by four lengths. Dead last on the turn, last at the 300m mark. She lengthened stride and ran down the field to win by half a neck. Waller called it remarkable. Everyone else called it something that defied belief.
The Farewell
On 13 April 2019 at Royal Randwick, Winx won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes to make it 33 in a row. 43,000 people were there. As she returned to scale to the sounds of Tina Turner’s “Simply The Best,” the crowd, Waller, Bowman, and the owners were in tears.
She retired as the highest-earning racehorse in the world, was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame (one of only three horses inducted while still racing), and later joined the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
In retirement at Coolmore Stud, she suffered tragedy when her first foal was lost in 2020. Her second foal, a filly by champion stallion Pierro, sold at the 2024 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale for $10 million — a world record for a yearling.
The Farewell
What This Story Teaches Us
Weight-for-Age Racing
Unlike handicap races, weight-for-age means the best horse should win — there's no extra weight to level the field. Winx dominated under these elite conditions. Learn how weights work →
The Cox Plate
Australia's weight-for-age championship, held at Moonee Valley. Understanding its prestige explains why winning it four times is considered the greatest achievement in modern racing.
Group 1 Racing
The highest level of thoroughbred competition. Winx's 25 Group 1 wins is a world record that may never be broken. Understand prize money →
The Trainer-Jockey Partnership
Chris Waller and Hugh Bowman’s partnership shows how the humans behind the horse are as crucial as the animal’s talent. The streak required brilliance from everyone involved, every single time.
Yearling Sales
Where racing careers begin. Winx was bought at the Magic Millions for $230,000 — her foal later sold for $10 million at Inglis Easter. The same filly, the same bloodline, valued 43 times higher because of what her mother became.