THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - CELEBRATING OUR CHAMPIONS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, February 19, 2017

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Winx’s much awaited return to action was delayed, but not diminished, when she turned in another sterling performance to easily account for her opposition in the Apollo Stakes at Randwick last Monday.

The meeting was originally scheduled for the previous Saturday but was moved after Racing NSW had invoked their extreme heat policy ... but Winx could arguably have raced any time on any day of the week and achieved the same result.

The Apollo Stakes provided Winx with her fourteenth successive win, which equalled run of the mighty Phar Lap.

Australia has every right to trumpet its champion ... but really that celebration should be kept to her factual record of expertise ... and there is no shortage of material there ... rather than going ‘over the top’ and entering the world of speculation.

Would Winx have beaten Phar Lap? Is she a better horse than Black Cavair?

These are just two of the totally unnecessary questions being asked in the wake of Winx’s latest success. For those who want to exercise their minds on the topic for their own pleasure, that’s fine, but let’s not pretend there is a definitive answer to those questions and therefore the argument becomes irrevalent.

That has always been the case with trying to compare horses from different eras.

Some even want to push the envelope further reporting that Winx is the best ‘drug free’ racehorse in the world, a somewhat snide comment against the two top rated horses in the world, Arrogate and California Crome, who race in America where the drug regulations are far less stringent than in Australia.

Even though those horses legitimately race with the likes of Lasix in their system ... again, as with those champions from different eras, Winx has never met those American stars in competition and she really doesn’t need someone to find a back door in order to promote her to the top of the pile when she herself has got nothing to prove?

Winx is an exceptional racehorse in her own right.

Why can’t we just enjoy her and those other champions, past and present, for what they are?

Racing needs its champions.

When one appears it should usher in a celebration not an argument.