With Winx lining up her final race this weekend we've taken a look into how she got her start, and what New Zealand racing connections are doing in this weekend of The Championships.

 

Former New Zealand jockey Jason Collett had only a bit-part in the Winx blockbuster, which has its final screening at Randwick on Saturday, but it has made him suitable material for sporting trivia quizzes.

 

Because Jason Collett will always be the correct answer to the question:  Who was the first jockey to win a race on Winx?

 

Collett partnered Winx when she made a winning debut on June 14, 2014, in an 1100m two-year-old fillies race at Warwick Farm.

 

Winx, who had been beaten in her two leadup trials, started at $5 and beat Felines by three-quarters of a length. Felines went on to be a Group III winner and earn almost A$500,000.

 

Collett retained the mount when Winx won her second start, a fortnight later at Rosehill, but Hugh Bowman had his first ride on the filly when she won the Group III Furious Stakes at hr third start.

 

Collett had three rides on Winx in her three-year-old season but was beaten each time. The pair combined to finish second in the Group II Tea Rose Stakes before being unplaced in the Light Fingers Stakes and Surround Stakes.

 

Winx had four wins and three seconds from her first 10 starts but has not been beaten since finishing second in the 2015 Australian Oaks, four years ago this weekend.

 

Collett will never regret being part of the Winx story but will not be unaware that while Winx has now won 24 Group I races, Collett is still waiting for his first victory at the elite level.

 

The Sydney-based rider is entitled to regard the absence of a Group I win as a statistical oddity, albeit a frustrating one.

 

The 27-year-old has won more than 900 races and had 75 group or listed wins, most of them in Sydney, so there is no question about his ability.

 

He has had 15 Group I placings, including four this season, but is still without a Group I victory, after 116 attempts.

 

 He had his first Group I placing when Abeautifulred ran second, beaten half a head, in the 2011 One Thousand Guineas at Riccarton and had another Group I second that month, in the Levin Classic.

 

He recorded his latest Group I placing when Frankely Awesome was runner-up in the Vinery Stakes at Rosehill a fortnight ago and Collett also ran second on Spright in the William Reid Stakes last month.

 

Bowman rides Frankely Awesome in the Australian Oaks on Saturday but Collett still has an Oaks mount, on outsider Rocknavar, and will partner a genuine Sydney Cup chance in Red Cardinal. Collett ran second in the 2014 Sydney Cup on Opinion.

 

Kiwi mare Glory Days will earn a decent bonus if she can run in the first three in Saturday’s A$2 million Sydney Cup.

 

Her Auckland Cup wins means that she will earn a A$100,000 bonus for her owners and a A$50,000 bonus for trainer Bill Thurlow if she finishes in the first three on Saturday.

 

The others in the Sydney Cup field who are eligible for the bonus are Brimham Rocks, Top of the Range, Midterm, Big Duke, Shraaoh and the New Zealand-owned Patrick Erin.

 

The bonus is on offer to any Sydney Cup runner who, in the current season, finished in the first three in the any of five selected races - the Auckland Cup, Metropolitan, Adelaide Cup, Perth Cup and Manion Cup.

 

The same bonus was offered last year but was unclaimed.

 

Glory Days is attempting to cap a spectacular season. The six-year-old started the term on a rating of 71 but has won seven of her 11 starts, including her hometown Waverley Cup, Wanganui Cup, Avondale Cup and Auckland Cup.

 

 She has earned close to $500,000 for the season and will be racing for a first prize of A$1.16 million, plus the bonus, on Saturday. The conditions at Randwick are unlikely to worry her. She has won on good, dead, soft and heavy tracks this term, ranging from a good 2 to a heavy 11.

 

The Red Giant mare was clearly superior in both the Avondale and Auckland Cups and the law of averages favour a Kiwi victory this weekend.

 

 No New Zealand-trained horse has won the Sydney Cup since Honor Babe in 2003 and Glory Days is attempting to become the first horse to win the Auckland Cup and Sydney Cup in the same season since Apollo Eleven, 46 years ago.

 

 

Only 17 New Zealand-trained runners have contested the Sydney Cup since Honor Babe’s win.

 

In six of those years, there were no Kiwi-trained contenders and the four runners this weekend – (Sir) Charles Road, Glory Days, Zacada and Rondinella  - is the biggest representation for more than a decade.

 

There were also four runners in 2006, when Zabeat, Three Chimneys and Fooram filled three of the first four placings.

 

Zacada ran second last year, beaten a nose, with Charles Road third and Harris Tweed, Mr Tipsy and Pentathon have been other placegetters since 2003.

 

There have also been periods when New Zealand horses have dominated the Sydney Cup. Banderol, King Aussie, Just A Dancer and Eagle Eye all won in the space of five years from 1988, and Apollo Eleven, Battle Heights, Oopik and Good Lord (who raced in Australia as My Good Man) were successful between 1973 and 1978.

 

Perhaps the most extraordinary Kiwi Sydney Cup winner in recent times was Azawary, who was successful for rider Nigel Tiley in 1982.

 

Azawary, who was trained by Alan Jones, took 24 starts to win a maiden and was still a maiden when he started his five-year-old season, in 1981-82. He had 27 starts that term but more than paid his way, with eight wins, including the Sydney Cup, and running second in the Wellington Cup.

 

His career stretched over six seasons but he never won a race before or after his five-year-old season. He earned $203,466 in the 1981-82 season but his five other seasons combined produced just $3,425 in stakes.

 

Zacada has done little since his Cup placing 12 months ago but does stay 3200m and Charles Road, Glory Days and Rondinella are all form runners.

 

Rondinella did not make her open class debut till February but has recorded Group I weight-for-age placing , at her last two starts. She ran third in the 2400m Tancred Stakes a fortnight ago, with 56.5kg, and drops to 51kg this weekend, though jockey Sam Clipperton is likely to ride her 1kg over.

 

New Zealand fillies Imelda Mary and Clementina will both race in blinkers for the first time in the A$1 million Australian Oaks at Randwick.

 

Clementina is the only maiden in the Oaks field but had no luck when fourth in the NZ Oaks and there was merit in her unplaced run in the Adrian Knox Stakes last weekend.

 

The Savabeel filly is part-owned by Wellington owner Lib Petagna, who won the 2016 Australian Oaks with Sofia Rosa. Petagna is also a form owner, winning the Group I Breeders’ Stakes with Nicoletta last weekend and the NZ Derby with Crown Prosecutor last month.

 

Imelda Mary has won two Group II races this season and was unsuited by the track conditions when failing in the NZ Oaks.

 

Clementina will be ridden by Opie Bosson who will also partner Avantage and Danzdanzdance in rich races at Randwick.