Winx’s younger sibling Covent Garden has been upstaged on debut at Canterbury, finishing unplaced in heavy conditions in a race won stylishly by another well-bred two-year-old.

Covent Garden, a half-sister to now-retired champion Winx, stepped out for her first start in Wednesday’s Harry Angel @ Darley Handicap (1100m).

With Winx’s jockey Hugh Bowman aboard, the Chris Waller-trained $4.40 second favourite never appeared comfortable in the heavy conditions and finished sixth of the seven runners, with debutant Sixgun storming home to register an impressive three-quarter length win over favourite Camerlengo.

Covent Garden is a daughter of Exceed And Excel out of Winx’s dam Vegas Showgirl and is raced by her breeder John Camilleri, who also bred Winx.

The Waller-trained four-time Cox Plate winner Winx was retired last year after amassing 37 wins from her 43 starts including an unbeaten 33-race sequence spanning four years from 2015.

Sixgun is the younger brother of Group Two Arrowfield Sprint winning-colt Splintex and a half-brother to Group-placed mare Invictus Salute who, like Sixgun, are both trained by Mark Newnham.

Newnham says Sixgun is another nice horse from the family and was impressed by the way he got the job done on debut.

“He’s probably a bit more physically developed than Splintex at the same stage but he’s got a few wayward traits that Splintex didn’t have,” Newnham told Sky Thoroughbred Central.

“We’ve had to iron that out with a few trials and a change of gear. After his last trial we’ve put the cross-over noseband on him and that seems to have worked well.”

Sixgun spotted most of his rivals a big start coming to the home turn but finished strongly under apprentice Robbie Dolan.

“I didn’t think he would pick up and win like that,” Dolan said.

“It’s not that he wasn’t going well he just didn’t know what he was doing.

“It was his first time on a heavy track like that and it just took him a while to really balance up on it. But when he let down up the straight I was always confident I was going to win then.

“He’s probably still not 100 per cent in the mind yet but for him to win like that first time in a race and with so much improvement left to come for him, he could be exciting.”

Racing fans will have to wait a bit longer for the debut of champion Winx’s younger half-sister.

Covent Garden, a two-year-old filly, was scratched from a race at Warwick Farm on Monday with the public holiday meeting to be run on a heavy track.

She was entered to make her debut over 1200m but the Chris Waller-trained filly was withdrawn on race morning.

Instead, Covent Garden is an acceptor for an 1100m maiden race for two-year-olds at Canterbury on Wednesday.

She is among seven unraced juveniles in a field of 10 for the Harry Angel @ Darley Handicap.

Waller has also entered Covent Garden for a possible home track debut at Rosehill on Saturday.

Covent Garden is by Exceed And Excel out of the Al Akbar mare Vegas Showgirl.

Vegas Showgirl has produced eight foals but so far only Winx and the ill-fated Group Three winner El Divino, a son of leading sire Snitzel, have made it to the races.

Winx, by Street Cry, dominated Australian racing during her 43-start career with 37 wins including 33 in a row spanning a four-year period of dominance from 2015.

Hugh Bowman, who formed a history-making association with Winx, has been booked to ride Covent Garden at Canterbury.

She is only the second Winx sibling prominent breeder John Camilleri has opted not to sell.

Camilleri sold a half-brother to Winx by Snitzel for $2.3 million at the 2016 Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Named Boulder City, the colt was retired to stud without racing.

He served his first book of almost 100 mares in 2018 at a modest stud fee of $5000.

Winx ran her last race in front of a sold-out Randwick crowd in April, 2019 as she swept to victory in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes for the third time.

She is due to foal in the spring this year after a mating with Australia’s most expensive sire, I Am Invincible.

Almost six years to the day since Winx made a winning debut at Warwick Farm, her half-sister Covent Garden will kick off her racetrack career at the same western Sydney venue.

Winx posted the first of 37 wins in a midweek race on June 4, 2014 and Covent Garden will be given the chance to do likewise six years and two days later.

Like her famous big sister, Covent Garden is trained by Chris Waller and will be ridden by Winx’s regular jockey Hugh Bowman.

Bowman has already been a large part of Covent Garden’s journey and while loathe to draw any similarities between the siblings, he says the two-year-old is a lovely horse in her own right.

“She is a bit new, she’s certainly not the ready-made article at this stage but she’s a decent filly,” Bowman said.

“She is working really well at home and her trials have been good.

“She is ready to race but she is going to improve from any experience she has. You could see she was a bit raw in her trial but she got a chance to stick her head out late which was good.”

Covent Garden won the latest of three barrier trials under vigorous riding from Bowman, who said his encouragement was part of her education process as she learns the craft of winning.

The filly has been retained by her breeder, John Camilleri, who also bred Winx before selling her as a yearling at the premier Magic Millions auction.

Covent Garden has drawn second from the outside in the Sky Active Plate (1200m) on Monday but Bowman expects her to line up despite the tricky alley.

“She is strong, she is still raw, Chris has been very patient with her and my understanding is she will run Monday,” Bowman said.

Covent Garden has also been nominated for a two-year-old maiden at Canterbury on Wednesday.