Racing
A Closer Look – Winx Stakes
A look at the veteran mares who have contested Group 1 races in Australia of late.
It is worth pointing out off the top that Via Sistina, who was born on 21 March 2018, will be closer to her seventh birthday than her eighth when she resumes in Saturday's Winx Stakes.
But, under guidelines relating to horses born to Northern Hemisphere time, she's classified as an eight-year-old in Australia, which is partly why she's been in the news this week.
Since the introduction of the Group 1 classification system in 1979, no mare aged eight or above has won an Australian race run at the highest level.
The oldest this century is the horse Saturday's feature race is named after, whose third Queen Elizabeth Stakes win came when she was 2769 days old.
Via Sistina will be 2707 days old when she steps out in Saturday's $1 million event at Randwick.
That will be four days older than Nettoyer was when she won her Queen Of The Turf, while Etah James was 2699 days old when she won her Sydney Cup.
The latter is one of only six mares who have contested Group 1 races at the age of eight since the turn of the century, half of whom were, like Via Sistina, born in the Northern Hemisphere.
They are Fictional Account, True Self and Promise Of Success, who all ran in one Group 1 race in their eight-year-old Australian season.
Aussie-bred pair Lunar Flare and Unchain My Heart, like Etah James, both ran twice at the highest level at eight.
A couple of fifth placings, by Lunar Flare and Promise Of Success, are the only single-digit finishing positions.
The highest-rated of any of those mares, however, was True Self, who owned a peak Racing And Sports rating of 116 prior to her Group 1 start at eight.
Via Sistina has run 118 or better in 10 of her 11 starts in Australia, including a peak of 132 in last year's Cox Plate.
The daughter of Fastnet Rock won last year's Winx Stakes in 120 and ran 127 to win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at her most recent appearance, just over four months ago.
So, yes, Via Sistina will represent the eight-year-olds this weekend, but she will be clearly the highest-rated mare to have done so and is still a couple of months short of becoming the oldest mare to win a Group 1 this century.
She could claim that honour at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day, when she will be 2770 days old – one day older than Winx was on Queen Elizabeth Day 2019.
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