We have a new champion

It has been two-and-a-half years since Australian thoroughbred racing had a genuine superstar in Black Caviar, but Saturday’s William Hill Cox Plate may have unearthed another one in the brilliant mare Winx.

It was a significant performance for so many different reasons. She not only destroyed the best Cox Plate field we have seen for years, she also obliterated a track record set by the great Might And Power 17 years ago. She broke it by more than three lengths!

But the most significant thing about the win is that Chris Waller, Australia’s best trainer at the moment, now has one of the big three Melbourne spring races to his name.

The Kiwi, famous for arriving in Australia with little else but a maxed-out credit card a decade or so ago, now stands among the greats as a Cox Plate winner.

Waller has been re-writing history for some time, but until he prepared a winner of one of the really big races, there were always going to be questions whether he produced a quantity of winners rather than winners of the highest quality.

That question mark is now removed and he has a horse in Winx who could launch his brilliant career to another level.

Peter Moody will tell you the pressure of training a champion is immense and very different from the ordinary scrutiny that trainers endure. Waller now has that burden, but he seems very well placed to bear it. Image and story Racing.com