Winx joins Black Caviar, Sunline as three-time horse of the year winner

The honours, tributes and affirmations of greatness just keep coming for wonder mare Winx, who has been crowned Australian racehorse of the year for the third time in succession.

The seven-year-old is setting new standards and breaking records every time she steps on to the track, and on Thursday night at a function in Melbourne she added even more lustre to her record with yet another award.

Her third triumph puts her in the most exalted company as she joins the great Black Caviar and Sunline as a triple winner of the horse of the year title.

Black Caviar was the world's best sprinter and retired undefeated after a 25-race career that took her to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Royal Ascot, where she won at group 1 level.

Sunline was a brilliant New Zealand-trained mare who won two Cox Plates and two Doncasters, triumphing in Sydney and Melbourne as well as her native New Zealand. Her finest hour was perhaps her group 1 triumph in Hong Kong.

That Winx has joined them - and has won more races and has a higher strike rate at the highest level - puts her in quite extraordinary context.

The Chris Waller-trained mare has won an astonishing 27 races in a row and will bid to make it 28 at Flemington on Saturday when she contests the group 1 Turnbull Stakes, a race in which she dominated last year.

After that it will be full steam ahead to her date with destiny at the Valley once more when she looks to win her fourth Cox Plate in succession.

Already a legend of the sport, she surely would become an immortal if she could win again, as she would have achieved a feat no other horse has ever managed.

The world’s highest-rated horse has not only scooped the horse of the year title, but she also won the 2017-18 Victorian racehorse of the year category and the champion middle distance awards.

The astonishing galloper was the runaway winner of all three categories after winning eight straight races during the 2017-18 season – six of them at group 1 level.

Waller's achievements in keeping Winx going for such a long career are often underappreciated. It isn't easy to keep a horse sound, fit and interested enough to keep backing up year after year as he has done, especially as she competes virtually all the time at group 1 level, the most demanding category in the sport.

He received the Bart Cummings award for trainers after winning 13 group 1 races during the campaign while Bowman was acknowledged as the top rider of the season with nine elite-level wins.

And while the Winx-Waller-Hugh Bowman triumvirate dominated the major awards, the other titles were spread across other stables.

Team Hawkes, who had to watch their great sprinter Chautauqua retired last week in the most frustrating of circumstances, got some measure of consolation when Estijaab was named champion two-year-old after her dominant win in this year’s Golden Slipper.

Quiet achiever Anthony Freedman's filly Shoals, who landed three group 1 events including the Myer Classic during the Cup week carnival, was named champion three-year-old filly, while Gerard Ryan's Trapeze Artist, successful at group 1 level three times, including in the TJ Smith Stakes, won the equivalent award for three-year-old colts and geldings.

The latter was also a contender for the champion sprinter award but was beaten in that by the Peter and Paul Snowden trained Redzel, the inaugural winner of The Everest.

Given the dearth of top-flight staying contests in Australia, it is always likely that the horse who wins the Melbourne Cup will win the champion stayer title, and it proved to be the case again this year when Lloyd Williams' Rekindling was named in that category.

The horse was notable for his age - he was a northern hemisphere three-year-old - and for the fact that he was trained by Joseph O'Brien, the Irishman who at 24 became the youngest trainer to win Australia's greatest race. Ironically Rekindling saw off the challenge of another Williams-owned galloper in Johannes Vermeer, who was trained by Joseph's father, Aidan.

The Warrnambool double achieved by Symon Wilde's steeplechaser Gold Medals meant he was always a strong contender for the champion jumper award, and so it proved when his back to back victories in the Brierly Steeplechase and the Grand Annual Steeplechase during Warrnambool’s May racing carnival got him the title.

The other trophy handed out on the night was for champion sire of the year, which went to Snitzel, whose progeny include Redzel and Trapeze Artist.

Article courtesy of Fairfax Digital and The Brisbane Times