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Winx heads the newest Australian Racing Hall of Fame class

Winx at Moonee Valley.(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Editor
17th May, 2017
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If 17 wins on the trot wasn’t enough for fans of superstar mare Winx, a place among the greats of the Australian racing industry should do it.

Winx joined legendary owner Lloyd Williams and a historic Melbourne Cup winner in the 2017 Australian Racing Hall of Fame this week.

The Chris Waller-trained mare is currently in the midst of a well-earned spell after capping off her autumn campaign with a five-length demolition in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick.

As rumours heat up of a possible venture overseas, she’s shaping up to take a third Cox Plate title in-a-row and surpass Makybe Diva as the richest Australian horse of all time.

From one Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner to another and an icon of racing in Australia, Archer was also inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Winx.

Archer was the winner of the very first Melbourne Cup back in 1861 and, just to prove it was no luck, he won it again the second year round.

He was also among the first winners of the aforementioned Queen Elizabeth Stakes back when it was known as the AJC Plate.

Archer finished his career with an amazing 13 wins from 17 starts and became one of Australia’s first true racing superstars.

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Another well-known horse to join the party was the Bart Cummins-trained Light Fingers, who bagged Cummins’ very first Melbourne Cup win in 1965.

Among the two-legged personnel to be inducted this year was five-time Melbourne Cup winner Lloyd Williams, a name that has been synonymous with racing for nearly half a century.

His Cup wins have been spread across a mammoth 36 years, having first tasted success in the race that stops the nation in 1981 with Just A Dash.

Now 77 years old, Williams has claimed the Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide Cups as well as the Golden Slipper in a fruitful career as an owner.

Jockeys J.J. Miller and Tommy Corrigan have both been recognised as well, with the former having won a host of classic races and the later being a trailblazer of his time in the late 19th Century.

Notoriously hard-nosed Racing Victoria Chief Steward Alan Bell has been honoured with a place in the new class.

Bell was Chairman of Stewards for a decade before his untimely death brought an abrupt end to his reign in 1955. Having been a steward since the early 30s, Bell had become renowned as simultaneously one of the most feared and respected authority figures in Victorian racing.

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For those outside of the West Australian racing scene, the induction of the Lee-Steere family may raise some eyebrows, but the esteemed family transformed and owned racing in the state for well over a century.

From the patriarch Augustus Frederick Lee-Steere who took control of the Western Australian Turf Club in 1868, all the way through his son Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Snr and then Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Jnr who both held the same position all the way up until 1984.

Full list of 2017 Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductees

Horses: Winx, Archer, Light Fingers and Saintly
Jockeys: John (J.J.) Miller and Tommy Corrigan
Trainers: Brian Courtney and Des Judd
Associates: Lloyd Williams, Alan Bell and the Lee-Steere family

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