GAME 9 It’s early July and jockey Hugh Bowman, just back from a stint riding in Japan, is in training with champion racehorse Winx as they prepare for what will be the most important season of their career together. It’s still very cold during the early-morning track work sessions at Rosehill Gardens, where Hugh works with trainer Chris Waller as his senior rider. Steam rises from the thoroughbreds as they work out in the darkness. Their breaths erupt in clouds of steam. As the weather warms, so do the rested muscles of the top-line thoroughbreds. There is racing all year in Australia, but the spring season is the premier time for the sport in this country. It’s when top thoroughbreds race in front of big crowds, dressed in their finest garb, at the country’s premier courses. And this year, one horse will be front of mind for nearly everyone: Winx. This season will be her defining moment. Can Hugh guide Winx to her fourth-successive Cox Plate win to become the only horse in history to achieve that feat? And how long can her unbeaten run continue? “She seems to be going very well,” Hugh tells Mercedes-Benz Parramatta magazine, having ridden her in track work three times since returning from Japan in June. “She’s a world- famous horse now and this is an integral time in her career.” Currently, Winx is one of two horses to win three successive Cox Plates and to take a fourth would eclipse the record she holds with Kingston Town, who achieved the feat between 1980 and 1982. “It would be amazing to win four Cox Plates. No other horse has ever done that. To think that she could is quite incredible,” says Hugh. “I’m really looking forward to her getting back on the track.” Hugh is the only jockey to ride Winx in competition since September 2015. He has taken her to each of her three Cox Plate wins, as well as 25 wins since 2014, including 23 of her record-breaking 26-race winning streak that was set at the Winx Stakes on 18 August. Winx is a special horse blessed with an unmatched turn of speed and a desperate desire to win, a combination that has propelled her to this almost unprecedented success at distances between 1300m and 2200m. She has already toppled so many records: most prize money ever won by an Australian horse (more than $18 million), most Group 1 wins, and the fastest time and largest winning margin in the Cox Plate. She was also ranked the world’s top turf horse in 2016. The partnership with Winx has helped elevate Hugh to the top rung of jockeys worldwide – it means he gets to choose his rides amongst the best thoroughbreds in Australia and internationally. “Jockeys are fashionable commodities – everyone wants you when you’re on top, which is good for business. I’ve got a great opportunity to capitalise on that right now and I’d like to keep doing that for as long as I can,” he says.