W. S. Cox Plate
A$5,000,000 (2022) | |
| Bonuses | Winner ballot exemption from the Melbourne Cup |
|---|---|
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The W. S. Cox Plate is a
History
The race is named in honour of William Samuel (W. S.) Cox, the racing club's founder.[3]
It was first run on Saturday 28 October 1922 with a purse of £1,000.
Between 1999–2005 the event was included in the Emirates World Series Racing Championship, a global "grand prix" of horse racing. The series included the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, the Japan Cup, the Dubai World Cup, the Arlington Million, the Hong Kong Cup, the Canadian International Stakes, the Grosser Preis von Baden, the Irish Champion Stakes, the Breeders' Cup Turf and the Breeders' Cup Classic.
1938 and 1948 racebooks
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Front cover of the 1938 W S Cox Plate racebook -
Inside cover showing raceday officials -
Starters and results of the 1938 W S Cox Plate showing the winner, Ajax -
Starters and results of the 1938 W S Cox Plate -
Front cover of the 1948 W. S. Cox Plate racebook -
Inside cover showing raceday officials -
Starters and results of the 1948 W. S. Cox Plate showing the winner, Carbon Copy -
Back cover showing admission charges & transport arrangements
Notable winners
Past winners of the Cox Plate include many of the champion racehorses of Australia and New Zealand. Winx has been the most successful, winning four years in a row (2015-2018) and Kingston Town won the race three times. Many horses have won the race twice, including Phar Lap, Flight, Tobin Bronze, Sunline, Northerly, Fields of Omagh, and So You Think.
Only one horse has ever won the race in the same year as winning the Melbourne and Caulfield cups, Rising Fast (1954), considered by many to be the greatest-ever horse from New Zealand. One other horse, Might & Power, has won all 3 races but the Cox Plate win was in the next year.[citation needed]
The double with the Melbourne Cup has only been achieved by seven horses: Makybe Diva, Might and Power, Saintly, Nightmarch, Phar Lap, Delta and Rising Fast.
Only three horses have ever won the Melbourne Cup and then gone on to win the Cox Plate the following year: Phar Lap, Might and Power and Makybe Diva.
The first Cox Plate was run in 1922 and won by the English horse Violoncello, who also won his next three starts during the
The 1925 race was taken out by three-year-old Manfred, who went on to win the VRC Derby and ran second to Windbag in the Melbourne Cup.
The class gallopers Heroic (21 wins from 51 races) and Amounis (33 wins from 78 races) were successful in 1926 and 1927.
Champion New Zealand-bred
The 1938 race was won by Ajax (36 wins from 46 races) in race record time. Outstanding New Zealand champion Beau Vite, a winner of 31 races, won in 1940 and 1941.
Due to restrictions on interstate travel due to World War II, the race was only contested by local horses from 1942 to 1944.
In 1946, the Cox Plate was run in two divisions with the mare
The ill-fated
Rubiton, the winner in 1987, went on to a successful stud career where he sired a future Cox Plate winner in Fields of Omagh. Better Loosen Up was 30 lengths from the lead, with 1000 metres to run, before winning the 1990 Plate in record time. He later became the first – and remains the only – Australian horse to win the Japan Cup. The eight-year-old Super Impose won in 1992 and defeated a top-class field which included Better Loosen Up, Let's Elope and favourite Naturalism, who lost his rider. Naturalism went on to run second in the Japan Cup. Australian Horse of the Year Octagonal defeated Mahogany in 1995, while Saintly gave Bart Cummings his second winner of the race in 1996 and Dane Ripper his third winner the following year. The 'People's Champion' Might and Power led throughout to win in 1998, setting a new track record not to be broken for 17 years.
In a front-running display, Sunline won the 1999 Cox Plate and returned in 2000 to win again by seven lengths (equalling Dulcify's winning margin), before West Australian champion Northerly defeated her in 2001 and 2002. In 2004, Savabeel became the first 3-year-old to win since Octagonal. In 2005, Makybe Diva triumphed and became one of the most popular horses in Australian racing history with an unprecedented third Melbourne Cup win 10 days later.
Fields of Omagh won his second Cox Plate in 2006, having already won in 2003, then finished second in 2004 and third behind Makybe Diva in 2005. In 2007, El Segundo won the Cox Plate, avenging his close defeat to Fields of Omagh the year before. In 2008, Maldivian led all the way to claim victory, while So You Think, at just his fifth career start, was an easy winner in 2009, giving Bart Cummings his fourth training victory in the race.
In 2013, Shamus Award recorded his first career win in the Cox Plate, a unique achievement for a WFA race of such high standing. He gained a start only due to the scratching of dominant favourite Atlantic Jewel.
Winx won in 2015 as a 4-year-old mare and in doing so set a new track record. She returned in 2016 when the race boasted a stellar field including the high class Godolphin star Hartnell. Winx and Hartnell looked set for a dream showdown approaching the home bend before Hugh Bowman flicked the switch on Winx, who accelerated away to score by a record breaking margin of eight lengths. In 2017, the champion mare started the Cox Plate as the shortest priced favourite since Phar Lap at $1.10 aiming for her 22nd successive win. After receiving a scare down the straight in the final 200m from Humidor, Winx pulled off an incredible victory to join Kingston Town in becoming just the second triple winner of the title. Winx completed the course in a time of 2 min 2.94 and in doing so broke the track record she previously set in 2015. In 2018 Winx launched herself into true equine legend status winning an unprecedented fourth Cox Plate.
Past winners
For a list of Cox Plate winning horses, see List of Cox Plate winners.
Favourites record
The favourite in the Cox Plate[4] has an overall win rate of 41%. Favourites starting at less than $2.00 (Even money – 1/1) have a win rate of 70%. Phar Lap has the record of shortest favourite at $1.07 (1/14 on) in 1931. More recently Winx started favourite at $1.10 (1/10 on) in 2017 on her way to winning her record-equalling third Cox Plate and in 2018 at her record-breaking fourth win she started at 1.20.
| Year |
Favourite |
Price |
Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Romantic Warrior | 3.70 | 1 |
| 2022 | Anamoe | 2.40 | 1 |
| 2021 | Verry Elleegant | 3.60 | 3 |
| 2020 | Russian Camelot | 3.50 | 3 |
| 2019 | Lys Gracieux | 2.50 | 1 |
| 2018 | Winx | 1.20 | 1 |
| 2017 | Winx | 1.10 | 1 |
| 2016 | Winx | 1.70 | 1 |
| 2015 | Winx | 4.60 | 1 |
| 2014 | Fawkner | 4.50 | 2 |
| 2013 | Dundeel | 4.00 | 8 |
| 2012 | Green Moon | 5.00 | 7 |
| 2011 | Helmet | 3.30 | 8 |
| 2010 | So You Think | 1.50 | 1 |
| 2009 | Whobegotyou | 2.80 | 6 |
| 2008 | Samantha Miss | 4.50 | 3 |
| 2007 | Miss Finland | 4.00 | 4 |
| 2006 | Racing To Win | 3.75 | 11 |
| 2005 | Makybe Diva | 2.00 | 1 |
| 2004 | Elvstroem | 4.20 | 8 |
| 2003 | Lonhro | 1.60 | 3 |
| 2002 | Northerly | 4.00* | 1 |
| 2002 | Lonhro | 4.00* | 6 |
| 2001 | Sunline | 2.75 | 2 |
| 2000 | Sunline | 2.38 | 1 |
| 1999 | Redoute's Choice | 4.50 | 5 |
| 1998 | Might and Power | 1.73 | 1 |
| 1997 | Filante | 2.38 | 2 |
| 1996 | Filante | 3.25* | 2 |
| 1996 | Juggler | 3.25* | 4 |
| 1995 | Danewin | 4.50* | 9 |
| 1995 | Our Maizcay | 4.50* | 14 |
| 1994 | Jeune | 4.00 | 13 |
| 1993 | Naturalism | 3.00 | 4 |
| 1992 | Naturalism | 2.00 | LR |
| 1991 | Shaftesbury Avenue | 2.50 | 12 |
| 1990 | Better Loosen Up | 3.00 | 1 |
| 1989 | Almaarad | 3.75 | 1 |
| 1988 | Our Poetic Prince | 2.25 | 1 |
| 1987 | Rubiton | 2.75 | 1 |
| 1986 | Bonecrusher | 1.90 | 1 |
| 1985 | Drawn | 4.50 | 3 |
| 1984 | Red Anchor | 1.73 | 1 |
| 1983 | Sir Dapper | 4.50* | 5 |
| 1983 | Strawberry Road | 6.50 | 11 |
| 1982 | Kingston Town | 2.75 | 1 |
| 1981 | Kingston Town | 1.67 | 1 |
| 1980 | Kingston Town | 2.50 | 1 |
| 1979 | Dulcify | 2.75 | 1 |
| 1978 | La Mer | 2.75 | 6 |
| 1977 | Luskin Star | 2.75 | 9 |
| 1976 | How Now | 2.75 | 4 |
| 1975 | Wave King | 7.00 | 5 |
| 1974 | Taras Bulba | 3.50 | 2 |
| 1973 | Young Ida | 5.00 | 7 |
| 1972 | Gunsynd | 2.50 | 1 |
| 1971 | Igloo | 3.75 | 2 |
| 1970 | Gay Poss | 2.75 | 6 |
| 1969 | Ben Lomond | 2.75 | 2 |
| 1968 | Rajah Sahib | 2.75 | 1 |
| Year |
Favourite |
Price |
Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Tobin Bronze | 1.17 | 1 |
| 1966 | Tobin Bronze | 1.90 | 1 |
| 1965 | Winfreux | 2.38 | 2 |
| 1964 | Strauss | 3.50 | 5 |
| 1963 | Sometime | 2.25 | 3 |
| 1962 | Aquanita | 1.80 | 1 |
| 1961 | Sky High | 1.44 | 3 |
| 1960 | Tulloch | 3.00 | 1 |
| 1959 | Travel Boy | 3.50 | 6 |
| 1958 | Prince Darius | 3.00 | 4 |
| 1957 | Prince Darius | 2.11 | 2 |
| 1956 | Rising Fast | 2.75 | 2 |
| 1955 | Rising Fast | 2.50 | 6 |
| 1954 | Rising Fast | 2.38 | 1 |
| 1953 | Carioca | 3.25 | 5 |
| 1952 | Hydrogen | 2.38 | 1 |
| 1951 | Hydrogen | 2.25 | 2 |
| 1950 | Delta | 2.38 | 5 |
| 1949 | Comic Court | 2.25 | 2 |
| 1948 | Phoibos | 2.50 | 2 |
| 1947 | Royal Gem | 2.75 | 4 |
| 1946 | Flying Duke | 3.50 | 5 |
| 1946 | St. Fairy | 3.00 | 7 |
| 1945 | Lawrence | 1.90 | 4 |
| 1944 | Lawrence | 1.50 | 2 |
| 1943 | Amana | 3.50 | 1 |
| 1942 | Great Britain | 3.25 | 13 |
| 1941 | Beau Vite | 1.33 | 1 |
| 1940 | Beau Vite | 2.75 | 1 |
| 1939 | High Caste | 1.90 | 5 |
| 1938 | Ajax | 1.50 | 1 |
| 1937 | Young Idea | 3.00 | 1 |
| 1936 | Mala | 4.00 | 2 |
| 1935 | Hall Mark | 3.00 | 2 |
| 1934 | Chatham | 3.00 | 1 |
| 1933 | Chatham | 1.53 | 4 |
| 1932 | Chatham | 2.11 | 1 |
| 1931 | Phar Lap | 1.07 | 1 |
| 1930 | Phar Lap | 1.14 | 1 |
| 1929 | Nightmarch | 2.25 | 1 |
| 1928 | Ramulus | 4.00* | 2 |
| 1928 | Amounis | 4.00* | 7 |
| 1927 | Amounis | 4.00* | 1 |
| 1927 | Gothic | 4.00* | 3 |
| 1926 | Heroic | 1.80 | 1 |
| 1925 | Manfred | 1.80 | 1 |
| 1924 | Whittier | 2.50 | 2 |
| 1923 | Easingwold | 2.50 | 1 |
| 1922 | Tangalooma | 2.50 | 6 |
- Price: * indicates equal favourite.
Attendance[5]
- 2023 – 21,000
- 2022 – 19,000
- 2021 – 0 (no public attendance due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions)[6]
- 2020 – 0 (no public attendance due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions)[7]
- 2019 – 24,648
- 2018 – 38,035
- 2017 – 32,617
- 2016 – 26,000
- 2015 – 27,620
- 2014 – 28,216
- 2013 – 30,986
- 2011 – 30,000
- 2010 – 31,546
- 2009 – 31,000
- 2008 – 34,000
- 2007 – 34,561
- 2006 – 34,256[8]
- 2005 – 44,189[9]
- 2004 – 32,187
- 2003 – 30,109
See also
- Australian horse-racing
- List of Australian Group races
- Group races
- Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival
References
- ^ "Winners and Past Results for the Cox Plate". Pro Group Racing Australia. 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
- ^ "Prize Money for the Cox Plate". Just Horse Racing. 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
- ^ Andrew Lemon (7 April 2011). "Developer Proposes Housing Plan For Moonee Valley Racecourse". The Age. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
- ^ Cox Plate Favourites
- ^ "Moonee Valley Racecourse Crowds". Austadiums. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ^ "2021 Ladbrokes Cox Plate Carnival to proceed without crowds". Moonee Valley Racing Club. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
- ^ Ractliffe, Damien. "No crowds at this year's Melbourne Cup carnival". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
- ^ MVRC News Archive – Moonee Valley Racing Club
- ^ Economic Benefits Summary