Chris Waller is laying out the new campaign plans of his outstanding mare Winx who will kick off a similar prep to last autumn starting with the Apollo Stakes 2017 in Sydney this February.

Winx targets the 2017 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Day 2 of Sydney’s ‘The Championships’ fourth-up next time in. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.

Waller and connections of the $9.3 million earner are looking at a similar Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival assault to last year with the five-year-old daughter of Street Cry.

Winx will return to racing drawing a super crowd of eager racing fans to Royal Randwick on February 11 when she defends her title in the weight-for-age $250,000 Group 2 Apollo Stakes (1400m).

There she will also be looking to extend her incredible winning streak to 14 straight after making it a lucky 13 with her record eight length Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) win at the Valley in October.

Keeping the mare’s best interests at heart Waller opted to turn her out to the paddock after that over a run in the Group 1 Emirates Stakes (2000m) on the last day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

After the Apollo Stakes Winx will then race in a trio of Group 1 Sydney autumn features including shooting for back-to-back wins in the $600,000 Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Warwick Farm on February 25 and the $1 million Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on March 18.

After the George Ryder last year Winx won the $3 million Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) handing Waller with a sixth win in the feature after his earlier success with: Triple Honour (2008) and Rangirangdoo (2010) Sacred Falls (2013-14), Kermadec (2015) and Winx (2016).

This time in a slight change will see Winx bypass the 2017 Doncaster Mile on Day 1 of ‘The Championships’ and instead head to $4 million Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) a week later on April 8.

“She’ll be back in [the stable] midway through December gearing up for another very important preparation, which I think will lead to four runs through the autumn starting off in the Apollo, Chipping Norton, George Ryder and then the Queen Elizabeth,” Waller told Racing Victoria this week.

“She never really had a proper spell last time because she had an operation and was confined to a stable for four weeks.

“After that, she had a pretty strict rehab and recovery and so she’s enjoying the luxury of a nice grass paddock, the sun on her back and being a lady of leisure.”

Waller has prepared two previous Queen Elizabeth Stakes winners with My Kingdom Of Fife (2011) and Reliable Man (2013).

Criterion (2^nd in 2015) meanwhile was the last Queen Elizabeth Stakes champ to back directly up off a run in the George Ryder Stakes.

Currently Winx is chasing down the all-time prizemoney record of triple Melbourne Cup winning mare Makybe Diva ($14.52 million).

If she returns and wins all four of her autumn starts she will be just $1.5 off that feat.

An overseas bid including a possible trip to Royal Ascot in England during our winter season is also being considered but is far from confirmed for Winx next year.

“Yeah, it would be great to go with her to Hong Kong, it would great to go to Dubai, it would be great to go to Japan, it would be great to go to England and France but you can’t go everywhere and that decision is made a lot easier when you have so many great races in Australia,” Waller said.

“I guess you could say the Australian racing calendar is doing a good job looking after its own because we’ve got enough good racing that we’ve got nothing left at the end of a long Spring Carnival.

“Perth’s offering some good prizemoney and the autumn comes around so quick so Australia’s probably doing a good job in looking after their own horses.”

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