[AusRace] My take on Winx and Ray Hadley

[L.B.Loveday]

Far from Matt Chapman making "a goose of himself in making comments about
super horse Winx", he made pertinent points, and the fact that Hadley had
not heard of him before suggests to me that Hadley should stick to his areas
of expertise, one of which is not racing.

Highland Reel has improved considerably since Winx beat him - remember First
Seal beating Winx 5-zip when Winx was young? Do you judge Winx by those
defeats or by the great improvement she has made since?

Further, Highland Reel carried 3kg more than Winx - about the most
time-honoured adage in racing is "Weigh will stop a train", and because of
the, on average, inherent inferiority of thoroughbred mares in racing, the
mare Winx, racing in WFA races, receives a weight advantage over the male
horses she opposes. Weight stopped Phar Lap, and enough weight would stop
Winx, but we'll never know how much would be needed.

So, we don't know whether Winx is truly a "super horse" or "just" a "super
mare", the later undoubtedly she is, the former we will never know, as she's
not raced on a level playing field since way back in the days that Fine Seal
beat her 5 out of 5.  Last year, between 19/8 and 16/9, Winx won 3 races at
Randwick, by between 0.2 and 1.25 lengths, in each case placegetters carried
2kg more, and many race handicappers will say that, on average, they would
have expected the results to be reversed were the playing field equal, but
again we will never know.

 

In the Cox Plate, the placegetters carried 2kg more than Winx. Would it have
mattered had they raced on even terms? Again we will never know.

But what we surely do know is that Winx races with an advantage when she
opposes male horses, and so she is a "super mare", but "super horse"? We
don't and will never know.

 

 

 

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