The connections behind Australian Horse of the Year Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}), currently spelling following her 22nd consecutive victory when taking her third G1 Cox Plate on Oct. 28, have decided that the G1 Lockinge S. in May is the best option for a warm up prior to starting at Royal Ascot in June. Trainer Chris Waller has indicated through Ascot's Director of Racing Nick Smith, with whom he is in regular contact, his preference for the Newbury feature.
“We put together a road map, working with France Galop and Horse Racing Ireland and all the tracks in the UK, to take to Chris which outline how Winx could get to Royal Ascot and go on from there,” Smith told Racing Post. “The two options we outlined were the [G1] Prix d'Ispahan into the [G1] Prince of Wales's S. or the [G1] Lockinge S. into the [G1] Queen Anne. The bottom line is if they come, and they decide to have a prep race, the Lockinge is of significant interest as it is run on a straight track which would give her experience before Royal Ascot. Chris Waller was particularly interested in that. He was also interested in races like the [G1] Falmouth S. and the [G1] Nassau afterwards, if they decide to have a fillies programme, or if they want to be more ambitious they could go for the [G1] Juddmonte International.”
Said Smith, “They are very positive. If the horse is going well at the right time in March next year then there is a very good chance we will see her in Europe. We agreed a few months ago that in order to make it easy for Chris that the best approach was to put together one letter with all our logos and programmes together so they could go through one channel. Right now, it seems the Queen Anne is almost certainly the race they are going to target.”
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