Drawing comparisons to sporting royalty such as Lionel Rose, Cathy Freeman and the great Phar Lap, champion racehorse Winx is set to go down with Australia’s greats.
A new film storying the mare’s legendary career, allowing generations to come to share in the beauty of her journey, premiered in Sydney on Friday night.
But A Horse Named Winx doesn’t just document her record 33 straight wins, but her pre-racing days as a shy foal, right through to delivering her first foal just this year.
For director Janine Hosking, the film is less about racing excellence and more about celebrating what human and animal can achieve together.
As she puts it: “it’s a love story.”
“It’s inspirational and powerful, but it's also the connection between human and a horse,” she told AAP.
“It's a very beautiful story, but I thought we could go deeper than the fairytale and show all the pressure and the struggle and it was just important that the story really goes on the record.”
Ms Hosking said the documentary will head to the National Film and Sound Archive and will be studied at schools, declaring the horse the “Phar Lap of the modern era”.
Winx’s strapper throughout the historic run, Candice Persnij, paid tribute to the film for refusing to focus on the wins, instead delving into the work that helped a champion perform to her true ability.
While the mare routinely started as an unbackable favourite through the fated win streak, Ms Persnij said that didn’t stop the stress levels heading through the roof when she would run.
“I'm sure (trainer) Chris (Waller) could tell you all about that, and I think the stress might go up the further up the chain of command,” she told AAP.
“Honestly, it's just so much nicer and more relaxing to look back on it now and actually enjoy it, instead of living the constant stress level.”
Veteran journalist Andrew Rule, who wrote the film after penning a book on Winx, said only Lionel Rose’s upset bantamweight title win in 1968 and Cathy Freeman’s 400m Olympic gold in 2000 compared.
“Winx is very similar to Cathy, neither was a totally imposing, charismatic person in the flesh, but obviously both were athletic freaks,” he told AAP.
“And they were much loved by everybody, because they were unassuming, they were quiet and they were very good.”
“Winx came along at a time when we're a far bigger society, far more complex, far more sophisticated, and yet despite all that competition, she managed against the odds to win public adoration and public attention.”
Winx retired in 2019 with her staggering 33-race winning streak intact.
That streak featured 25 Group One wins, including four victories in the Cox Plate, Chipping Norton Stakes and George Ryder Stakes.
A four-time Australian Horse of the Year, Winx amassed owners a whopping $26.4 million in prize money.
The mare has continued breaking records in retirement, with her only living foal sold for $10 million in April in a world-record price for a filly.
The winning bidder was one of Winx’s owners - Debbie Kepitis - with perhaps another chapter of racing legend to be written yet.
