For the uninitiated, Group 1, or Grade 1, races represent the highest level of competition in horse racing, in which horses run off level weights, albeit with weight-for-age and weight-for-sex allowances. The horse who won most such races during her career was the Australian mare Winx, who racked up 25 consecutive victories in the top echelon between May 30, 2015 and April 13, 2019. In fact, Winx won 37 of her 43 career starts, including her last 33 in a row, and amassed over A$26 million in prize money.
A daughter of Dubai Gold Cup winner Street Cry, Winx was trained Chris Waller – not to be confused with former Newmarket trainer Chris Wall – in Sydney and ridden, for most of her career, by Hugh Bowman. Her Grade 1 winning streak began in the Queensland Oaks, over 1 mile 3 furlongs, at Doomben Racecourse in Brisbane and ended, 3 years, 10 months and 14 days later, on the final start of her career in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, over 1 mile 2 furlongs, at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney; she was winning the latter race for the third year running. Two starts previously, she had won the Chipping Norton Stakes, over 1 mile, also at Randwick Racecourse, thereby beating the previous record for career Grade 1 wins, 22, set by Hurricane Fly when winning the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstwon Racecourse in Dublin on January 25, 2015.
Although, evidently, a top-notch racemare, Winx was awarded a Timeform rating of just 134, leaving her 6lb shy of the 140 required to be an all-time great, according to the respected horse racing data provider. Indeed, for all her success on the racecourse, Winx has, so far, proved less effective as a broodmare, having produced just one foal – a filly by Coolmore stallion Pierro – in early October 2022.