Winx’s spring preparation is the same as it’s been for the past couple of years, with one exception.
Her long-time next door neighbour, Group One winner Foxplay, has left the Chris Waller stable after being sold to racing and breeding concern Yulong Investments.
Finding a new best friend for the champion has proved fairly simple with Group Three winner Fiesta now occupying the adjoining stall.
‘They came back to the stable on the same day and are getting on well,” Waller said.
Fiesta will be set on a similar path to the Princess Series as both Winx and Foxplay in their three-year-old spring preparations.
The winner of the Group Three Widden Stakes in February, Fiesta finished second to subsequent Champagne Stakes winner Seabrook in the Sweet Embrace Stakes before her seventh in the Golden Slipper.
Both Winx in 2014 and Foxplay in 2016, began their spring campaigns by winning the Furious Stakes, the second of the fillies races in the Princess Series.
Waller is planning to get Fiesta to the races a little sooner.
“She will resume in the Silver Shadow Stakes on the same day as Winx comes back,” he said.
“I think she can get up to the 1600 metres of the Flight Stakes or Thousand Guineas.”
Like 2017 Queen Of The Turf winner Foxplay, Fiesta races in the distinctive purple colours with white stars of Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds.
Winx finished second to First Seal in both the Tea Rose Stakes and the Flight Stakes.
She began her record-breaking Group One spree the following autumn in the Queensland Oaks.
The plan is for Winx to trial on Monday week and resume on August 18 at Randwick in the Group One Winx Stakes (1400m), a race formerly known as the Warwick Stakes and run at Group Two level.
