Run The Numbers – Jigsaw’s streak a two-in-a-million chance

The past 15 years have seen Australian racing relatively spoiled by winning streaks. Black Caviar’s perfect 25 belongs in the annals of time along with Phar Lap’s four wins during Melbourne Cup week.

There was a time when Kingston Town’s three Cox Plates seemed an impossible elite benchmark, until Winx came along and won four, part of an Australian record of 33 consecutive successes.

Before that pair of star mares, there were the outback Queenslanders Miss Petty and Picnic In The Park, with 24 and 21 straight wins respectively, also in the 1980s.

Further back, Gloaming and Desert Gold both achieved 19 straight wins, albeit on both sides of the Tasman, while Ajax romped to 18 straight wins in the 1930s before being famously rolled at 1-40 in the Rawson Stakes.

Autumn Glow was on a truly historic path when she went through her first 11 starts unbeaten. Just two Group 1 winners this century had longer unbeaten streaks from debut: Frankel and Black Caviar.

That historic run came to an end when she was third in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes earlier this month.

Last Saturday, another famous Australian racing winning streak rolled on when Jigsaw won The Quokka, his seventh straight win.

With thanks to racing analyst Daniel O’Sullivan, there have been 14 horses that have won seven consecutive races in Australia and New Zealand, including a Group 1, over the past 20 years.

It is quite the remarkable story that a seven-year-old, who before this run of victories had not won a race in two-and-a-half years, has embarked on a streak that has netted him two Group 1 wins, WA’s biggest horse race and moved his career earnings to the precipice of $5 million.

O’Sullivan’s analysis found that of the 14 Group 1 winners with winning streaks of seven or more, just two, Winx and Jigsaw, have completed that streak in their seven-year-old season.

🏇 Jigsaw made it 7 straight wins taking out the Quokka at Ascot.

I went back through the TopRate database to see how it stacks up historically, and just how rare a streak like this is, especially with a G1 win.

His winning run dates back to October 2025, with wins across… pic.twitter.com/IAImj3lYuF

— Daniel O'Sullivan (@TRBHorseRacing) April 20, 2026

It might not be the most famous winning streak in Australian racing, but it must rank among the least likely, with an average price of $8. A $1 all-up bet across those seven wins, based on starting price, would have yielded $573,830.

It has been a literal two-in-a-million journey for trainer Cindy Alderson and jockey Logan Bates, neither of whom had won a Group 1 race before Jigsaw’s current campaign had started.

In terms of current Australian winning streaks, Jigsaw shares the honour with a four-year-old mare called Magnardo. At a recent Mornington meeting, the Reece Goodwin-trained sprinter secured her seventh consecutive win.

But while Jigsaw’s seventh straight win came in a $5 million feature, Magnardo extended her streak in a $22,000 benchmark 56 on Easter Sunday.  

She was a nine-start maiden before her win at the Healesville picnics in November. After two seconds at her next two starts, Magnardo began her current streak on Boxing Day at Drouin.

She then won picnic races at Woolamai (2) and Balnarring before an impressive win in a 0-56 at Werribee in February. A trip back to Woolamai, where she won a picnic trophy carrying 71kg, was then followed by her Mornington success.

Her total prize money across this period has been $35,700. Technically, she holds the current Australian streak as one of Jigsaw’s wins was in New Zealand, while with eight wins in total, she is the winningest horse in Australia in 2025/26.

Autumn Glow has seven wins, the same as Pride Of Venus, whose victories have come at Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton, the most recent of which was on April 12.   

But the active horse with the longest unbeaten winning streak in Australia – that is, since debut – is a Tasmanian two-year-old named Aristopolos.

The John Blacker-trained colt has been imperious through Tassie’s two-year-old features, adding his sixth straight win in the Alfa Bowl at Launceston last Friday.

His six wins have been by a combined margin of 22.5 lengths, with Friday’s success an eight-length margin, only half a length shy of his win in the Magic Millions 2YO race at Hobart in February.

What is ominous is that Blacker is far from finished with the St Mark’s Basilica colt’s two-year-old campaign. He’ll contest the Alexandra Plate and Tasmanian Sires’ Produce. He’d be long odds-on to take his unbeaten streak to eight by the end of the season.

There are currently 328 horses that have been unbeaten in Australia this racing season. There are a trio of horses with four starts unbeaten, Kalgoorlie-based Lavish Charm, Joe Pride’s Group 3 winner Weeping Woman and Darwin galloper Jumping Power Two.  None of that trio is unbeaten in their careers, just this season.