On a day when the queen of the turf, Winx, again asserted her dominance, a filly dubbed "Winx Junior" has shown her class to win her first Group One race.
The Chris Waller-trained filly Foxplay outgunned the older mares to win today's Gr. 1 Coolmore Legacy Stakes at Randwick, less than an hour and a half after stablemate Winx had won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Waller has had faith in three-year-old Foxplay being a Group One filly and was delighted to see her achieve it having decided to go for the shorter race against fillies and mares rather than stretching her to the 2400m metres of the Australian Oaks.
"She's been a very special horse to us," Waller said. "We call her the Winx Junior, but there's a lot of similarities.
"She started off with a winning bang and has sort of been a bit forgotten and had a few hard luck stories go against her.
"And funnily enough she ran in the same race two weeks ago that Winx ran in prior to running in the Oaks.
"Winx didn't win the Oaks and I didn't really give it a lot of thought but I decided not to run this filly in the Oaks because I still think she's got some brilliance and some speed."
Winx and Foxplay both won the Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) during their autumn three-year-old seasons before running in the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m), in which Foxplay was fourth while Winx finished fifth two years ago.
Winx's second placing to Gust Of Wind in the Australian Oaks on today's corresponding programme two years ago is the last time the champion mare was beaten.
While Foxplay has a long way to go to reach anywhere near those heights, today's win was important and also gave Waller his first Group One win for syndicator Denise Martin's Star Thoroughbreds.
Foxplay ($7.50) raced wide under Kerrin McEvoy but held off the finish of runner-up Zanbagh. She scored by a half length, with Dixie Blossoms ($5.50) the same margin away third.
