A Piece of History

A look at the legendary Group 1 Cox Plate ...

In honour of the founder of Moonee Valley, William Samuel Cox, the Moonee Valley Racing Club Committee decided to run a weight-for-age race over 2040m.

Offering a purse of 1000 Pounds, the W.S. Cox Plate was first run in 1922 and was won by imported stallion Violencello. He was a seven-year-old who the previous year had won the Caulfield Cup at only his fifth start in Australia after being brought out from England.

Strategically placed on the racing calendar between the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, the W.S. Cox Plate has become a race of great importance and prestige. It is regarded as the best weight for age race in Australasia and one of the most exciting race days in the world. Since its introduction in 1922, the W.S. Cox Plate has always attracted a field of the best horses on offer - the who's who of the Australasian turf have won this race.

Phar Lap, Kingston Town, Rising Fast, Dulcify, Gunsynd, Super Impose, Octagonal, Might and Power, Sunline, Northerly and more recently champion mare Makybe Diva, So You Think and Winx, have all etched their names on the W.S. Cox Plate Wall of Champions that now takes pride of place in the Octagonal Lounge.

Today the Ladbrokes Cox Plate carries total prize money of $5,000,000. The W. S. Cox Plate has provided racegoers with many great turf memories and will continue to for many more years to come.

Renowned journalist and author Les Carlyon once wrote - “For a scribbler casting around pearls, the Cox Plate has become a tease. The problem is: how do you write about the race without appearing to slobber? I'll explain.

Moonee Valley Racing Club, rather like that good colt Shakespeare in his Classic year, insists on staging masterpiece after masterpiece. They gave us the Kingston Town trilogy; that used up a few pearls. Then as a variation, they staged the Bonecrusher - Our Waverley Star slugfest. And how do you follow that?”

With four time Cox Plate winner Winx - need we say more!!

and racing.com reports:

Japanese visitors are a little more highly regarded in Australia than the last time the Land of the Rising Sun was represented in a Cox Plate. That was 2005, by Tosen Dandy, a $201 pop who was never a factor when finishing 11th, beaten 8.4 lengths.

The following spring Japan provided the Melbourne Cup quinella and has recently won a couple of Caulfield Cups.

So Japan's Cox Plate influence to date is not much of a historical marker when trying to assess the chances of Lys Gracieux and Kluger, who came here much more highly-rated than Tosen Dandy.

But the 2040-metre weight-for-age event hasn't been a great race for horses trained north of Australia. Twenty have run with Adelaide (2014) the only winner, Benbatl (2018) the lone second placegetter and Grandera (2002), Highland Reel (2015) and Folkswood (2017) third placegetters.

Lys Gracieux, Kluger, Magic Wand (Ireland) and Danceteria (England) are this year's internationally trained runners, with Cape Of Good Hope now technically a 'local' being in the care of Lindsay Park.

Come via Caulfield

All four internationals are having their first start in more than five weeks and Form Focus shows that Adelaide is the only winner in the past 35 years to have won it off a break of more than three weeks.

Winx came out of the Turnbull Stakes to win the past two editions, but the race she used as a final lead-up the year before that is the most successful final lead-up.

Eleven of the past 35 Cox Plate winners had their previous start in the Caulfield Stakes. The Turnbull Stakes (six), Caulfield Guineas (four), Epsom Handicap (four) and Caulfield Cup (three) are the other races to have provided multiple winners in that time.

Cape Of Good Hope (winner), Black Heart Bart (second), Harlem (third), Avilius (fourth) and Homesman (sixth) are those from this year's Caulfield Stakes running on Saturday.

Girls to the Four

The Spring Champion Stakes, in which this year's lone three-year-old Castelvecchio finished second, has provided one winner in that time, when Savabeel won in 2004, and he is one of 20 three-year-olds to win the race that was first run in 1922.

Only four of them have been in the past 30 years, a period in which 46 colts and geldings of that age have contested the race.

Four is the most successful age group, with 30 Cox Plate victories, including five of the past nine. Five-year-olds have won 23 and six-year-olds 15.

Winx last year became just the eighth seven-year-old to win the race, while Super Impose (1992) is the lone eight-year-old to win and Fields Of Omagh the only nine-year-old.

Tranquil Star (1942/44), Flight (1945/46) and filly Surround were the only females to win in the race's first 75 years, while nine of the 22 editions since have been won by mares.

Mystic Journey and Verry Elleegant are four-year-old mares engaged this year, with Northern Hemisphere three-year-old Cape Of Good Hope - a four-year-old by Australian time - the boys' representative.

Favourites' challenge

Six of those nine mares to win of late started favourite, but they were shared among champions Sunline, Makybe Diva and Winx, who started favourite in all four of her wins.

It was a tough battle for favourite backers in the pre-Winx era with Might And Power ($1.75) and So You Think ($1.50) joining Sunline ($2.40) and Makybe Diva ($2) as the only outright favourites to score between 1991 and 2014. Northerly was $4 equal favourite in the second of his wins.

Basically, you need to be a champion to win as favourite.

Seventh Heaven

Mystic Journey's owner Wayne Roser did well selecting gate six for his mare at Tuesday's barrier draw. That is the most successful barrier since 1939 with 11 wins, closely followed by barrier seven on 10.

The slight hiccup is that she will almost certainly start from gate five (seven wins), with third emergency Gailo Chop drawn the inside. Avilius will start from six and Cape Of Good Hope seven.

Fifty-seven of the past 80 winners have started from one of the inside seven gates.

Homesman (12) and Te Akau Shark (14) will need to create history to win with no winner having sprung from their alleys in that time.

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