October
NovemberNo buts about it
“Winx is a champion, but …” chorused the WWs (Winx Whingers) in the October 6 issue. I stand by the comments in my previous letter that Winx has nothing to prove to anyone.
In my mind she is a champion full stop, so why do they keep knocking her and denigrating Australian racing by claiming she has not been tested overseas and is beating nothing here?
For any horse to win 29 races straight, 22 of them Group 1s, and a lazy $23 million in prizemoney speaks for itself.
Please send me a list of other horses that have achieved the same, here or overseas.
Paul Connors laments that she wins her races too easily. Paul, that is what I thought champions did!
“Against whom?” he scoffs. If I was a trainer I wouldn’t mind having Hartnell in my stable. In the Turnbull four other runners had amassed earnings of over $1 million so they were obviously not the battlers of the racing world.
Mervyn Sullivan tells us that for a top northern-hemisphere horse to race in Australia is “out of the question”. Golly, and I believed Winx had left high-class European gallopers Vadamos, Highland Reel and now Benbatl in her wake in Cox Plates. Silly me.
A racecaller remarked that bubbles of excitement and emotion arise each time Winx enters the course. Do the knockers want to deny this to racegoers and take the gloss off Winx with their continual bleatings about her not racing overseas?
Yes, we have had some wonderful horses represent us overseas but this does not mean it should be compulsory for Winx to do so.
Simply accept she is a champion and be proud she is Australian. Just please let Winx be Winx and allow us to enjoy her achievements.
Alas, if Winx is ever beaten I am afraid we will hear these same naysayers scream from the rooftops: “I told you she wasn’t much good!”
Finally, on another subject, what a great article was “30 years of winning” by Tony Kneebone (6/10).
Although religion was never part of our household surprisingly the only organisation or charity I remember my father liberally supported each year was DOXA and Father Joe Giacobbe for their work with disadvantaged kids … as mentioned by Tony.
Swan Hill (Vic)