That confidence had been bolstered by Winx’s stunning yet effortless Flemington gallop the previous Monday – 21 seconds for her last 400m, much the same as when flying home in the Warwick Stakes. Trackwork clockers triple checked their stopwatches. “That’d be right,” Bowman nonchalantly told them.
“By that stage,” he says now, “We knew what to expect. As long as she was moving well and was fit, happy and healthy …”
Winx needed no help, but after the septet left the 2000m start by the river, she received it in spades. Magicool, at $201, flew to set a rapid pace, which only increased when Sir Isaac Newton pressed him at the 1400m. Bowman and Winx sat third last.
“She was so good to ride when the pace was on because she just travelled so comfortably. It was the slow races where I had to engage more into things,” Bowman says.
Engage? He barely moved. Under a hold Winx began hauling them in, from five lengths back at the 500 metre mark. Remarkably, that’s when the cheering began from the crowd at this 21st party. Bowman still didn’t budge, and Winx – blessed not with a long stride but an extraordinary ability to quicken it – cruised to the lead at the 380m. Finally, Bowman merely relaxed his grip at the 200m and she eased away, winning by 6.5 lengths from the two other original acceptors – Ventura Storm and Humidor.
“I could hear the crowd,” Bowman says. “They were waiting for me to let her go to really roar, so I knew what was on. She knew it too. She knew how good she was. I’d just release the handbrake and the crowd would roar and she’d go even more, responding to the people.”
Waller, as customary by then, hid in the weighing room to watch on TV but “put my head out to watch them go past at the 200” and beheld “an amazing display, really”.
“It looked great. The colour was fantastic – beautiful green grass and the surrounds at Flemington. She was there for the first time, but she looked at home,” says Waller, who concurs with Bowman’s view their appreciation of it all “embeds more deeply as the years go on”.
“It was actually a huge relief when she retired, because it was a demanding period,” Waller says. “We knew it was a privilege when we were involved, but we never really got to enjoy her wins like the public. It was just constant pressure – training, riding, being associated with such a good horse.
“The different perspective now is it’s helped me cope with pressure a lot better. She’s changed us as people, and it’s been an amazing experience.”