Cox Plate

The Cox Plate

The W.S. Cox Plate is held annually in late October by the Moonee Valley Racing Club in honour of W.S. Cox, the club's founder. A Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds and over, it is widely considered to be the Weight for Age championship of Australasia. Run over 2,040 metres (2,231 yards) on turf, it carries Australia's richest weight-for-age prize, AUD$3 million in 2007.

This race is highly rated and considered by many to be the true test of horses' abilities in Australia. In 1999 it was included in the Emirates World Series Racing Championship. The series includes the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, the Irish Champion Stakes, the Dubai World Cup, the Canadian International Stakes, the Japan Cup, the Hong Kong Cup, the Arlington Million, the Grosser Preis von Baden and Breeders' Cup Turf and Breeders' Cup Classic.

History and Past Winners

William Samuel Cox (1831–1895) was a pioneer of Thoroughbred horse racing in Australia. In 1882 he founded the Moonee Valley Racing Club and The Cox Plate is named after him.

The Cox Plate was first run in 1922 and was won by the imported English horse Violoncello, who also won his following three races during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. The 1925 race was won by the brilliant but unpredictable three-year-old Manfred who went on to win the VRC Derby and ran second to Windbag in the Melbourne Cup. In 1926 and 1927 successful runs came from the classic Heroic (21 wins from 51 races) and Amounis (33 wins from 78 races). The New Zealand bred Nightmarch won in 1929 followed by the celebrated Phar Lap in 1930 and 1931. Other two times winners of the race were Chatham (in 1932 and 1934) and Young Idea (in 1936 and 1937). The 1938 race was won by the brilliant Ajax (36 wins from 46 races) in a time that set a race record. Remarkable New Zealand champion horse Beau Vite, a winner of 31 races, won in 1940 and 1941.

From 1942 to 1944 the race was only contested by local horses due to restrictions on interstate travel. But in 1946 it was run in two divisions with the mare Flight winning the stronger division, thus becoming a dual winner following her victory a year earlier. Hydrogen was the seventh dual winner of the race with victories in 1952 and 1953. And in 1954 the great dual Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup winner Rising Fast was first past the post. Redcraze, a 32 race winner, won in 1957 as a seven-year-old, ridden by George Moore and Noholme won in 1958 taking almost a full second off the race record with a brilliant display of front running.

In 1959 the powerful Tulloch won, setting a new race record and Tobin Bronze became another dual winner of the race with victories in 1966 and 1967. The 1969 race was won by the New Zealand three-year-old colt Daryl's Joy and the popular grey, Gunsynd, was trainer Tommy Smith's third winner of the Cox Plate in 1972. Fury's Order, the New Zealand Derby winner, pulled it off on a bog track in 1975 with Surround becoming the first three-year-old filly to win the race in 1976, defeating the VRC Derby winner Unaware.

A strong gallop by Dulcify led to a win by seven lengths in 1979 and he later started as favourite in the Melbourne Cup but tragically had to be put down after breaking a pelvis during the race. There has only been one triple winner of the Cox Plate, the mighty Kingston Town, who celebrated success in 1980, 1981 and 1982, being ridden by a a different jockey on each occasion: Malcolm Johnston in 1980, Ron Quinton in 1981, and Peter Cook in 1982. After success in 1983, Strawberry Road raced in Europe and the US finishing fifth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp and third to Seattle Song in the 1984 Washington, D.C. International at Laurel. 1984 winner Red Anchor was seventh Cox Plate winner for trainer T.J. Smith.