Part owners Debbie Kepitis and Peter Tighe enthralled the audience at The Valley’s A Legendary Night on Tuesday when they spoke about their wonder mare, how they came to buy her and their ride along the way as first she became a champion and then a legend.

It’s been assumed for a long time that if she saluted at The Valley at the end of October and won a record fourth Cox Plate that might just be her swansong.

Aside from racing overseas she would have little to prove in Australia, and an overseas trip is now highly unlikely. With the benefit of hindsight, Winx’s owners admitted the time to travel might have been when she was a four year old rising five after her first Cox Plate: now she is a seven year old who would be rising eight next northern hemisphere summer.