As if the legendary Winx hadn't stolen the limelight enough in her time on the track—winning every single one of her last 33 starts, including a world-record 25 group 1s—she is creating even more drama in her second career at stud.
The 12-year-old bay mare by Street Cry, a dab hand at siring generational female talents as Zenyatta proved in the United States, was sent to dual Australian champion sire I Am Invincible for her first cover in 2019 but tragically lost the foal late into her pregnancy.
She was given a year off to recuperate from the life-threatening trauma before being sent to Pierro, a proven source of top-notchers, and she produced a filly from the mating in October 2022.
Winx was sent to breed-shaper Snitzel that season, but failed to get in foal, and so the Pierro filly is her only offspring to date, which obviously makes her a priceless asset.
It came as an enormous shock, then, when Winx's doting owners—Debbie Kepitis and family, Peter and Patty Tighe and the heirs of the late Richard Treweeke—announced last year that the filly would be put on the market at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
Now her date with the auctioneer, during the second session of the sale April 8, is fast approaching.
"It was a very difficult decision," says Debbie Kepitis, whose father Bob Ingham and his brother Jack made their fortune in poultry and were renowned for turning Woodlands Stud in the Hunter Valley into a powerhouse operation before Bob sold up lock, stock and barrel to Sheikh Mohammed in 2008.
"We just felt that the right way to go about it was to put the filly into a public auction and let someone else join in the amazing ride we've had with Winx, and wish them very good luck."
The Pierro—Winx filly has an even more exciting pedigree besides having two outstanding racehorses for parents, for several reasons.
First, Pierro's sire and paternal grandsire were the immensely popular Woodlands Stud-owned Australian horses of the year Lonhro and Octagonal, who won no fewer than 21 group 1s between them.
As well as having three folk heroes owned by members of the Ingham family in the first three generations of her pedigree, the Pierro filly out of Winx also has a more universally appreciated selling point in boasting Street Cry as damsire.
The late son of Machiavellian has long excelled in this department, with Cascadian, Diversify, Rebel's Romance, Romantic Warrior, and Vino Rosso among the highest earners out of his daughters bred in the Northern Hemisphere, but he has been especially influential as maternal grandsire in Australia.
Golden Slipper (G1) hero Farnan, Blue Diamond Stud Stakes winners Daumier and Lyre, Kingston Town Classic (G1) scorer Pounamu, and group 1-winning sprinter September Run had already advertised Street Cry to good effect as a damsire down under, but they have been joined this season by Godolphin's Newmarket Handicap (G1) victor Cylinder, Spring Champion Stakes (G1) winner Tom Kitten, and group 3 scorer Red Card.
"Street Cry is certainly making his mark as a broodmare sire," says Kepitis. "Godolphin seem to have a nice stock of daughters by him. It's such a shame we lost him so young."
Everything seems to be in place for Winx's filly to make a fortune at Inglis then: an extraterrestrially gifted dam; an elite sire; an excellent back pedigree; rarity value; good looks; and the world's attention on her.
