“I’m not sure I’m that significant or that successful,” says John Camilleri, the breeder of Australia’s darling, Winx. In one sentence he has perhaps given a decent hint as to how he has become so successful – by not thinking too much of himself. For Camilleri is not only behind Street Cry’s greatest offspring, a 25-time G1 winner, but also the 2015 Golden Slipper winner Vancouver, by Medaglia d’Oro. Through those two horses alone he has achieved more than most breeders can even dream about.
“It was just an absolute thrill,’ says the Sydneysider, recalling the racing career of Winx. “You can look back and say to yourself, well, it would’ve been lovely if I’d kept her, but you can say that about every animal you breed. I get a lot of pride and joy out of creating something or breeding a thoroughbred that’s special.
“She captured the hearts and minds of, I’d say, all Australian racegoers, if not all Australians.”
Winx’s dam, Vegas Showgirl, died last year at the age of 21 but Camilleri has retained four of her daughters, including three-year-old Wings Of Desire, a dual winner in 2024, and City Of Lights, from the final southern hemisphere crop of Deep Impact.
Camilleri’s international outlook extends to Europe, and he boards mares close to Newmarket with Adrian O’Brien’s Hazelwood Bloodstock. “It’s more a sideline for me but I enjoy the European racing,” he admits.
“And there are some stallions over there that we just simply don’t have access to – highly credentialed racehorses, proven stallions that don’t visit us: Sea The Stars, Frankel, Dubawi. So the only thing we can do as Australians is venture over there. But it’s expensive and risky, so you’ve got to have a really well-credentialed mare to justify it.”
One such mare, the G3 winner Florentina, is responsible for In Italian,Dubawi’s four-time American G1 winner who Camilleri sold to Peter Brant of White Birch Farm. He adds: “I love doing things a little left field and when you’ve got something special and unique in some of these stallions, it gives you a better opportunity to produce something that’s special.”
Special could also describe Camilleri’s G1 winner Sunshine In Paris: she may help him fulfil another racing ambition. “She’s heading for the Everest and, all being well, the plan would be to go to Ascot next year, then breed her in the northern hemisphere on southern hemisphere time. It’s a long-range plan. They don’t always come off, but it’s costing me nothing to dream.
“Royal Ascot really appeals to me. I’d love to have a runner there!”
Initially hooked by harness racing with his family as a youngster, Camilleri got his first taste of thoroughbreds when, following a business lunch, he bought into a syndicate to race a horse named Fairway, who later gave him his nom de course, Fairway Thoroughbreds.
“We bought this horse, unvetted, based on a photo from a syndicator called Harry Lawton. Five of us went in.” Three G1 wins later and Camilleri was ‘instantly addicted’.
“Following that, I thought I’d dabble in breeding. I bought a few more racehorses and it was like rolling a big stone that kept gathering moss,” he says.
“It’s been a great sideline for me. Horses certainly take my mind off things at times. I’m not into boats and planes – you can have them! I’ll happily follow the horses.”
