How do you want to judge Winx's afternoon stroll around Royal Randwick in the Apollo Stakes on Monday?
Maybe it's the three lengths she finished ahead of Hartnell, whose eye-catching run would have been the talking point if not for the champion mare pulling away ahead of him, just as she did in last October's Cox Plate.
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Winx wins 14th straight at Randwick
The mare has now matched Pharlap's best winning streak after her win in the Apollo Stakes.
Perhaps you could look to Phar Lap, our most famed thoroughbred whose unbeaten record of 14 Winx has now equalled. We could go through sectional times, grab quotes from racing experts and aficionados and old timers of the track who saw Tulloch and all the other Randwick greats.
But for mine, the most useful way to measure Winx is to go back to the minutes before the Apollo Stakes in the middle of the Theatre of the Horse, and take a look around.
![Showcase: Winx is paraded in the Theatre of the Horse prior to the Apollo Stakes.](/web/20170214120940im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/c/3/2/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guc1kk.png/1486982663273.jpg)
The meeting had been shifted to the first day of the working week from Saturday because of Sydney's scorching weather, and now it was 5.30pm on a Monday.
Yet here the fans were, thousands of them, cramming most vantage points around the mounting yard to catch a glimpse of the best horse in the country and officially the best in the world on turf.
The ATC had thrown the gates open at the start of the day, and 4500 people had turned up for the earlier races. Pockets of tradies wearing their company's shirts – roof tilers, deckers, plumbers – mixed with NRL players and corporate suits. "I'm working from home this afternoon," grinned one. "Can't you tell?" But then more came. In the half hour before the Apollo Stakes at 5.40pm, an estimated 1000 people – according to Australian Turf Club officials – surged through the turnstiles.
They weren't there for the free parking. At nearly $10 a beer, they couldn't have been there for the cheap drink. They were there to see Winx. She didn't disappoint. She never does.
![Streets ahead: Winx leads the field home at Randwick.](/web/20170214120940im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/c/3/3/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guc1kk.png/1486982663273.jpg)
Trainer Chris Waller calmly chatted with connections before the race in the middle of the mounting yard, but afterwards he admitted taking a peek at the gathered mob.
"I choose to keep it out of my thoughts," Waller said, signature quivering of the bottom lip starting to take hold. "But it makes me emotional thinking about it. I'm a racing purist and don't get to sit on the other side of the fence and appreciate it as much as the public. But it's pretty humbling, to say the least."
![Standing room only: The crowd packs in to see Winx prepared in the stables.](/web/20170214120940im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/c/3/2/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guc1kk.png/1486982663273.jpg)
Winx didn't start well, but she needs more misfortune than that to be defeated for the first time since the Australian Oaks in April 2015.
She sat behind stablemate Endless Drama for most of the journey, and at the top of the straight peeled to the outside and from there jockey Hugh Bowman was doing it easier than the cabbies in peak hour traffic on nearby Alison Road.
![Crowd pleaser: The champion mare had a big, adoring audience.](/web/20170214120940im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/c/3/2/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guc1kk.png/1486982663273.jpg)
It might look easy but isn't getting easier for those around Winx.
When asked before the race how she was feeling, owner Debbie Kepitis said bluntly: "Sick".
Waller doesn't look blissful after she wins these days so much as relieved. Asked if it gets easier, he just shook his head.
"No. No, it doesn't. We're now just at the stage where you hope she gets a trouble-free run, more than hoping she's good enough. It will take a champion to beat her – or her to fail to get beaten. We're hoping for those two things to stay away."
Let's hope she keeps going. Winx is the sporting superstar this city needs. She doesn't embarrass her club with drunken posts on Twitter. She doesn't take the big money on offer to play rugby union in France. She won't be making inappropriate moves towards vulnerable young colts during Mad Monday celebrations.
Then again, if she wins her third Cox Plate at Moonee Valley this year, equalling the record of the great Kingston Town, she has every right to ask Waller for a night on the tiles.
Her winning streak ranks her sixth overall, and she now needs one more to equal Carbine and Bernborough's mark of 15. Black Caviar, of course, holds the Australian record with 25 consecutive wins, the most of any horse around the world for more than a century.
Winx still hasn't quite captured hearts like the retired sprinter – but this year has the potential to change that. Should she keep winning this autumn like she did last year, interest can only swell.
With the Apollo Stakes over 1400m now done, there's the Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on February 25 and then the George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on March 18 – two group 1s she won last year.
The final destination of this preparation comes on day two of The Championships with the Queen Elizabeth Stakes on April 8. She has unfinished business in the $4 million race, having bypassed it last year to win the Doncaster Mile with possibly her greatest run buried behind a wall of horses on the turn.
Sydney punters are notoriously hard to drag to the track. But if the wonder horse keeps winning, more people will be prepared to watch her – even if it's on their own time.
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