Winx will have her second barrier trial at Rosehill in a 10-horse heat featuring star sprinter Redzel and other Group One winners, Alizee, Egg Tart English, Foxplay, Heavens Above and Inference.
The 1000m-heat on Monday morning will be Winx’s tune-up for her scheduled return in the Group Two Apollo Stakes on February 17.
Later in the day, her regular jockey Hugh Bowman will find out if he can get a careless riding penalty from last Friday’s Warwick Farm meeting reduced so he can partner the champion in her first start for 2018.
Bowman has also appealed the severity of a penalty he received in New Zealand the following day.
Kerrin McEvoy had been touted as a replacement should Bowman fail but will be riding Redzel in the Group One Lightning Stakes at Flemington on the same day as Winx’s return.
In a barrier trial on January 22, Winx and Redzel finished sixth and seventh respectively behind three-year-old Trapeze Artist who runs in Saturday’s Expressway Stakes.
Lasqueti Spirit, winner of the 2016 VRC Oaks, runs in the second of Monday’s heats on the course proper ahead of her autumn campaign.
Runner-up to Winx in last year’s Chipping Norton Stakes and third behind Bonneval and Perfect Rhyme in the Australian Oaks, Lasqueti Spirit’s spring campaign was cut short after three starts when trainer Lee Curtis was unhappy with her performances.
