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Why Winx isn't in the Melbourne Cup

Why isn’t Australia’s greatest horse in Australia’s greatest race?

The world’s highest-ranked horse has won 29 races in a row, including four consecutive Cox Plates, but has never contested a Melbourne Cup and has never run beyond 2400 metres.

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Because of her success, Winx would be slugged with a big weight, more than 60kg.

She also doesn’t need to.

Having amassed nearly $23 million in prize money and earned herself the title of world’s best thoroughbred, Winx hasn’t got anything else to prove.

Winx wins the Cox Plate. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
Winx wins the Cox Plate. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

Her trainer Chris Waller will have three runners – Who Shot Thebarman, Youngstar and Finche – while jockey Hugh Bowman will ride English horse Marmelo.

And according to Bowman, had she run in a Cup, Winx definitely would have won.

Bowman told 2GB Radio that Winx would struggle now as a seven-year-old, but would have dominated previous years.

“I’ve got no doubt she would (win the Melbourne Cup), had she run as a four or five-year-old,” Bowman told Alan Jones.

Hugh Bowman and Chris Waller. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)
Hugh Bowman and Chris Waller. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)

“She’s been so dominant at the weight for age level.

“I don’t think she’d be winning now. She’d have a lot of weight — 65kg maybe.

“She’d have too much weight to run now and she’s never run over that distance.”

Winx signs off after history-making spring

Winx left Melbourne on Monday bound for a rural retreat on the southwest outskirts of Sydney.

The mare has not been beaten since April 2015 and whether she returns in the autumn has yet to be decided, but her spring campaign is certain to mean she becomes the first four-time winner of the Australian Horse of the Year title.

Who Shot Thebarman ran third in 2014, Waller’s best result yet in the Cup in which his first runner, Kelinni, ran fourth two years earlier.

Now a 10-year-old, Who Shot Thebarman will be running in his fourth Melbourne Cup after missing the race last year with a temperature.

Age doesn’t seem to be a problem with the gelding winning the Sydney Cup, Australia’s only other Group One race over 3200m, earlier this year.

Greg Carpenter, the man who handicaps the Cup field, is on record as saying if Winx was in the Cup, she would be carrying in excess of 60kg.

The topweight on Tuesday is Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution who has 57.5kg in his bid to give Godolphin and trainer Saeed bin Suroor a first win.