The owners of champion racing mare Winx have confirmed that she is pregnant again, this time to the Arrowfield stallion Snitzel.
The news comes just days before the highly anticipated sale of Winx’s first foal on Monday, which is expected to drive multimillion-dollar Thoroughbred yearling records.
Co-owner Peter Tighe said it was an exciting next step in Winx’s broodmare career and she was in good health.
“She’s an amazing mother,” he said.
Winx won a world-record 33 consecutive races, including 25 Group 1 victories and a record four Cox Plates as part of her $26 million-plus racing career.
She retired in 2019 to become a broodmare.
Winx lost her first foal to the stallion I Am Invincible in 2020 before giving birth to a Pierro filly in October 2022.
He visited Arrowfield’s Snitzel last year, resulting in the latest foal to be born this spring.
“(Snitzel) has been on the shortlist for a couple of years. You can only go to one a year,” Mr Tighe laughs.
“We didn’t want to leave him with Snitzel too much longer. He’s not getting any younger and produces such a high-level colt when you get him, so we wanted to have one before his career was over.
“Fingers crossed that everything goes as planned for the rest of the pregnancy.”
The stallion’s service fee of $247,500 is among the highest in the country.
Arrowfield Stud general manager Paul Messara was delighted that Winx owners chose Snitzel.
“He’s been a champion sire four times in the past, statistically he’s probably the leading sire in the country in terms of winners to runners,” he said.
“He just has a fantastic track record of producing top-notch offspring, both fillies and colts.
“Obviously (Winx) is one of Australia’s best and certainly a name in racing that everyone knows.”
Messara said the sale of the Winx filly next week would give a good indicator of the value of future progeny, but was quick to add that owners might not sell next.
“A Snitzel colt out of Winx could be worth anything, certainly millions.”
There is no impact on next week’s filly sale.
Winx’s first live foal, the Pierro filly, now 18 months old, has attracted worldwide attention and will be sold at the annual Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale on April 8.
Industry insiders previously said the price could threaten the yearling filly record of $2.6 million and possibly the all-time record of $5 million paid for Black Caviar’s half-brother in 2013.
Tighe said the latest news would have no impact on Monday’s sale.
“It’s just part of the Winx story,” he said.
He said the Snitzel colt had no impact on the ownership group’s decision to sell the Pierro filly.
“I couldn’t give you an exact time frame, but the pregnancy did not depend on the sale, nor vice versa.”