El Dorado Dreaming has been withdrawn from the Tea Rose Stakes at Randwick after returning an irregularity to a prohibited substance.
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The winner of the group 1 ATC Sires' Produce Stakes in the autumn, El Dorado Dreaming was tested on Tuesday after an inspection of Ben Smith's Newcastle stable, home and vehicle. Racing NSW stewards launched the raid after two other Smith-trained horses produced swab irregularities.
They suspended Smith after finding him guilty of refusing to give evidence and of giving false evidence regarding the source of unidentifiable and unlabelled substances discovered.
El Dorado Dreaming was transferred to Kris Lees and was set to run in his name on Saturday pending the swab result. After the result became known on Friday, stewards tried to get a further urine sample from the filly to be analysed on race eve but were unable to obtain one.
Smith has applied for a stay of proceedings pending the resumption of the inquiry but it has not been determined.
Fellow group 1 winner In Her Time has also been transferred to Lees. She had a race day gallop at Newcastle on Friday and is scheduled to run in the Premiere Stakes in preparation for the $13 million Everest.
"She feels a bit more forward than she has been in prior preparations. She feels good," jockey Corey Brown said.
On Saturday at Randwick, Winx will line up as the odds-on favourite to claim group 1 win No.20 in the George Main Stakes, a race she has won for the past two years. It shapes as her 27th straight victory.
"She has come back stronger again this prep," trainer Chris Waller said. "I don't get confused anymore because she has still been growing and developing up until now. She doesn't show the signs of slowing down. She just holds her condition right through."
It hasn't always been that way and Winx hasn't always been the star she is now.
Unlike Black Caviar, whose winning streak she bettered in the Winx Stakes last month with her 26th consecutive victory, Winx was beaten six times early in her career.
The turning point came in the Sunshine Coast Guineas in May 2015 when she powered home from the tail of the field in a sustained display of speed and stamina.
Winx has seven opponents to overcome including her stablemate Unforgotten, which is being hailed as a future star.
The winner of the Australian Oaks in the autumn and the Chelmsford Stakes at the beginning of this month, Unforgotten is the $11 second favourite for the George Main with Winx at $1.10.
"Unforgotten is a very talented horse but she can't beat Winx unless she has an off day and she hasn't done that for 26 starts," Waller said.
Waller believes the trip to Queensland was the making of her and she hasn't been beaten since her second in the Australian Oaks before she was dispatched north.
"It was a guessing game in the first two years of her life because because she kept putting on weight," Waller said.
"Now you will send her to the races and she will drop a couple of kilos and then you put her on the scales on a Monday and she is back within a kilo or two of her racing weight
"Almost horses at the start of the prep lose 10 kilos and put most of it back on but not all of it.
"She will stay the same weight.
"She doesn't eat any more than other horses. It's almost like she keeps an eye on her weight. It is quite weird.
"She is just a unique horse. Maybe it is because she is not under pressure to win her races. That's why she wins because she is actually doing it with a bit in hand.
"She is great and I can't see any reason why she can't continue on a bit longer."
A bit longer includes a tilt at an unprecedented fourth Cox Plate next month, all going well.
