‘Winning the race where it all started for Winx would be really special’
Lightning can’t possibly strike twice to the same extent, but if Mister Bianco (Zousain) can triumph in Saturday’s Winx Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m) on the Sunshine Coast, it will be a spine-tingling day for his owners Peter and Patty Tighe.
The Paul Shailer-trained gelding is among the market fancies as he seeks a fourth successive win following his victory in Ipswich’s prestigious T L Cooney (1350m) on June 21.
Another victory would mark a red–letter day for Zousain (Zoustar), Widden Stud’s $27,500 stallion who’ll be out for his fourth stakes winner from 116 Australian runners, and who’s set to have a forceful battalion of three starters in the race.
Also among nominations are two of his daughters in Chris and Corey Munce’s Bollinger Miss, looking to improve on her third in the Cooney, and Kurt Goldman’s Whomsonever, striving to complete a hat-trick after scoring at Ipswich and Murwillumbah.
Mister Bianco will likely be the shortest-priced of the trio, and if he can succeed it will bring back some heady memories for his managing owners.
That’s because he bears the colours of the Tighes’ Magic Bloodstock – which were also borne by the freak of nature after whom Saturday’s race is named.
Those silks – dark blue with a white M, epaulettes and pom pom – were suddenly far better known after Winx (Street Cry) became the talk of the land by carrying them to her astonishing victory, from last of 18 on the home turn, in what was then the plain old Sunshine Coast Guineas of 2015.
In a script deserving of Hollywood, or at least the Prescott Film Festival, that victory was not only special in itself, but for the fact it became the first of 33 straight – the scarcely believable sequence that rocketed Winx into the stratosphere, and global turf folklore.
Saturday will be the first time Magic Bloodstock’s silks have been seen in the Guineas since that day. The Tighes – who “won” the silks rights for Winx ahead of her co-owners Debbie Kepitis and Richard Treweeke – won’t be betting on another 33 on the bounce, but have reason to hope Mister Bianco can at least emulate the mighty mare with a Guineas win.
“He seems to be pretty good – he improves all the time, and he’s shown us a bit of promise,” Peter Tighe told ANZ News.
“He’s kicking his way through the grades at the moment, and he’s earned his opportunity in a Group 3 this Saturday.
“We don’t know if he’ll be good enough to win a Group 3, but we’re hopeful. He can’t do any more than he has done to get there, and he does seem to be improving all the time.
“He won well last start and he keeps stepping up. Hopefully he didn’t leave it all in the last run and he’ll keep stepping up for this one.
“If he takes that next step on Saturday, that would be terrific, but as long as he’s competitive we’ll be happy.”
Tighe has some 55 horses under the Magic banner. The vast majority are spread through eastern Australia, mostly with Winx’s trainer Chris Waller and the Gold Coast-based Shailer, while a handful race in New Zealand with Tony Pike, and two more are prepared in England by James Ferguson.
Mister Bianco, who’s won five from 12 overall, already counts as one of the bargain buys among Magic’s team. The sixth foal ouf of the stakes-placed New Zealand mare Orutan (Pins), he was bought for $70,000 by Shailer from Ambergate Farm’s draft at Inglis Classic in 2023.
Tighe quickly bought in as he moved to support the solo venture of Shailer, with whom he’d built a relationship through Shailer’s years as Waller’s Gold Coast foreman. Mister Bianco is now raced by a team of nine headed by the Tighes and including fellow Queensland mega-owner Noel Greenhalgh.
“Paul’s brother Hamish picked the horse out,” semi-retired businessman Tighe said. “He really liked him and bought him, and he ended up being one of the first horses we bought into to help get things going with Paul, and it’s worked out really well.
“Paul and his stable were getting a few new horses, so we thought we’d buy into a few. I live at the Gold Coast, so I spend a fair bit of time over at the stables, seeing what’s going on.”
Tighe said he’d now become a fan of Zousain, who sits sixth on the second season sires’ table, and fourth by winners. His leading performer is Amelita, winner of the VRC Red Roses Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), and who also carries the Magic silks for Waller. The nine-year-old Zousain’s top runner overall is another three-year-old filly in Drifting, who’s won two Group 3s.
“Because of Mister Bianco and Amelita I keep an eye on the Zousains, and I think he’s a quiet achiever,” Tighe said.
“He’s put some nice horses out. He just needs to break through with a good horse. If we can win a Group 3 on Saturday with Mister Bianco, it’ll be good for us and for Zousain.”
Unlike the most famous bearer on those silks, the famously business-like Winx, Mister Bianco also appeals on the personality front, Tighe says.
“He was just a nice type, and he’s always improved, but he’s also a real character,” he said. “He’s one of my favourite horses. When I go to the stables, he’s the first horse who sticks his head out to say hello, and he always comes over for a pat and a cuddle.
“He’s a bit of a lad and he’s fun to be with. That doesn’t make them fast racehorses, but if they’ve got ability it makes it more interesting. He’s the whole package.
“Winx was more business-like. She was never as cuddly as this fella is. She was all business.”
The Tighes were the only Winx owners present at the Sunshine Coast the day she won the Guineas, bringing to a spectacular halt a run of mere mortal form over the first year of her career, which had netted four wins in ten starts, but just one of her most recent seven. Understandably, the memories are still fresh a decade on.
“It was a very quiet, mundane day to start with – but it ended up being spectacular,” Peter said.
“For us, it was just a stepping stone to the Queensland Oaks. Chris said if she ran a good fourth or fifth she might have a show in the Oaks.
“On the home turn, I didn’t give her a hope in hell to be honest. I didn’t think any horse could win from that position. She was last, and I thought that if she got to fourth or fifth it’d be a good trial for the Oaks. But she just kept coming and blew them all away. Blew us away as well.”
Winx didn’t just win. She won by 1.8 lengths.
“It was just a very memorable day, with the way that she won. What she did was really, really special,” Tighe said. “We still were just happy with it as a trial for the Oaks, but of course, it grew more special in time when she was never beaten again.
“So, just to have a horse we’re involved in running in our colours in that race again is great. It means a lot to us, that race. We’re Queenslanders, but also winning the race where it all started for Winx would be really special.”
While the Tighes were the only owners present to accept the trophy in 2015, they’ll be a long way from the Sunshine Coast this Saturday, but there is still a Winx connection.
They’re on holiday in Arizona. The trip was conceived so that Patty could indulge her passion for golf with a friend. Then, coincidentally, the Prescott Film Festival – starting July 16 just 80km from where the Tighes are staying, and deep in old cowboy territory – announced its starter for what it bills as “our annual horse film”. It was none other than A Horse Named Winx.
The Tighes extended their holiday, and the film festival now boasts on its website that “the owners of Winx are coming from Australia”.
“It happened after we’d booked our holiday, but we decided to stay on for it,” said Tighe, also an avowed fan of the film, which he’s understandably watched “quite a few times”.
So the Tighes will be watching from afar, at around 10.30pm their time, when Mister Bianco sets out to do a Winx – albeit with just another 29 straight to go to really replicate the magic.