Japan Cup for Winx?

Chris Waller is certainly meticulous in his approach to training racehorses. He spoke on Tuesday at Breakfast with the Best about how he leaves no stone unturned when preparing Winx for her battles.

He spoke of how he worries she could pick up a cold and even admitted to being stressed that the swelled morning crowd at The Valley might spook or upset her as she went through the final paces of her preparation for Saturday's Cox Plate.

He clearly takes no chances when it comes to the mighty mare, especially this spring as she attempts to equal Kingston Town's grand record of three-straight Cox Plates and to take the title off Makybe Diva for highest career earnings of any Australasian horse.

But something doesn't add up.

Waller confirmed on Tuesday in his post-gallop press conference that Winx had been inoculated for the Japan Cup in late November. Inoculations are required to travel to another international jurisdiction, but these injections do not come without a risk.

Horses can and often do react to inoculations. Mostly, it can knock a horse around for two or three days and the worst-case scenario is that it can ruin a campaign. It certainly seems a big risk to take for a trip that, seemingly, is never going to happen.

So why would a man who is so careful about his horse's health and well-being, have Winx inoculated in the middle of her most important campaign yet? Even if it put her off her food for a day or two, it would likely be considered too detrimental to her campaign.

Waller has said all along that Winx was entered for the Japan Cup, which is run over 2400 metres, as a precaution that something goes wrong on her way to the Cox Plate. That may be so, but there might also be more to it.

"Australia is very proud of her. The rest of the world is very aware of her but the realism is that we've got to make sure that she comes first," Waller told reporters on Tuesday.

"We'd love to take her overseas and we will give her that opportunity but only when she's 100 per cent and still at the top of her game."

Winx is surely now at the top of her game as a spring six-year-old. If she does to Royal Ascot in the middle of 2018, she will be almost seven and few would argue that she could be better than she is this spring.

"She's been given all sorts of inoculations as well as the local flu vaccine to help build immunity in case you do have a small setback," Waller said.

"As much as being inoculated to go overseas we are constantly, like all our horses, making sure they don't get the flu, the common cold because on the eve of a big race like the Cox Plate that's the last thing that you want to happen.

"She's had all her inoculations. Tetanus shots, you name it. She's a good campaigner for getting your children vaccinated."

Waller made sure to ram home the point that travelling horses overseas to race is a most complicated matter.

"It's very hard for people to understand how hard it is to travel horses," he said. "They are controlled by seasons. Putting them on a plane and travelling them for 24 hours is one small problem but the bigger picture is that they've got to change their bodies.

"To have a horse like Winx to go to the other side of the world whether it be Dubai, Hong Kong, Japan, America, England and particularly the other side of the hemisphere, you may see her performing at five per cent below her best because of those factors.

"She doesn't deserve to go somewhere if she's not 100 per cent."

The beauty of a Japan Cup on November 26 is that it takes about half the time it takes to fly to England, thereby reducing the risk of travel sickness. The other appealing part of the race is that it is worth even more than the $6.2m Melbourne Cup whereas targets at Royal Ascot will be worth so much less.

The downside of a Japan Cup tilt is that Winx will be meeting the tough, hardened Japanese on their own turf and over 2400m - a distance she is yet to win at.

There will be no movement on a possible Japan Cup run until after Saturday but Waller did say that he was looking at the possibility of another run after the Cox Plate. We all thought he meant Flemington, but it might end up being Tokyo.