Harness racing doesn’t need a Winx

WINX, Winx, Winx…if only harness racing had a Winx…oh wait, it doesn’t need one, the industry has its own stars.

One of my pet peeves involving the industry – which was reignited today via a Facebook memory – is the constant desperate need to make comparisons with the thoroughbreds.

The Inter Dominion is the Melbourne Cup of harness racing, which is interesting because the A G Hunter Cup is also apparently the Melbourne Cup of harness racing.

Let’s not forget the Victoria Cup is harness racing’s Cox Plate.

Seven years ago I expressed my frustration when Kerryn Manning was referred to as harness racing’s Michelle Payne after winning the New Zealand Cup with Arden Rooney.

I wrote “It is disappointing Kerryn is being compared to Michelle Payne given Kerryn has achieved soooo much more….Michelle is the gallops version of Kerryn, not the other way around!!!!”

The post received an abundance of support, including comments from industry participants who felt the same way.

But what’s that got to with Winx?

Well, during the past month harness racing has had two versions of Winx – Queen Elida and Ladies In Red.

Queen Elida may become a modern day Gramel, or Ladies In Red could be the latest Robin Dundee, or before her retirement she could prove to be the best mare ever produced in the southern hemisphere (Winx included).

While some comparisons can create interest and discussion, surely it is time to retire the Winx correlation.

A quick Winx search via the Harness Racing Australia site suggests the comparisons are tiresome.

For example: In 2017 Lazarus was compared to Winx based on Group wins. Lazarus was also credited with having a “Winx-like following”, while another mention referred to Lazarus “who is being dubbed the harness equivalent to Winx”.

As they say in the Infomercials – “But wait, there’s more”.

Lazarus wasn’t the only Winx that year!

Also in 2017 Lennytheshark was “the trots equivalent of Winx”, with the same year also witnessing New Zealand’s greatest trotter Monbet emulating Winx with “Winx like preparations”.

Then in 2019, Lavros Midas Touch “was backed into Winx type odds” before Riding High took over the mantle of harness racing’s “Winx pacer” in 2020.

Should she remain unbeaten – which will take her winning sequence to eight – throughout the Breeders’ Challenge perhaps Major Delight can be the next Winx, or maybe be promoted as harness racing’s latest pin-up pacer…the next Ladies In Red even!