On Track - Spring 2020 Edition

6 The W.S. Cox Plate is a race that evokes great memories. The hype that it is Australia’s greatest weight-for-age race invariably lives up to that billing. Each Cox Plate has its own story and its own level of drama. It’s unmatched as Australia’s premier weight- for-age race and for that matter Australia’s best race. The 100th running of the W.S. Cox Plate on October 24 will see the winner’s name sit alongside immortals such as Phar Lap, Tulloch, Rising Fast, Ajax, Kingston Town, Winx, Sunline, Might and Power and Dulcify on an unrivalled list of winners. Somehow the race continues to grow in prestige and go to another level. That’s going to happen when Winx wins four years in a row and is then followed by Japanese superstar Lys Gracieux, who powered away with the race last year. That was underlined with Winx being rated the world’s best racehorse in 2018 and last year Lys Gracieux being named fifth. It’s a race which absorbs racing fans. In the lead-up, they are fascinated with who will win. They are then immersed in the race itself, which usually takes a tick over two minutes, but so much happens it feels like you’ve watched a feature-length movie. Then there’s absorbing what happened in the aftermath of the race. When you think of the Cox Plate, there are so many levels to it. There have been the dominations, the duels, the wars of attrition, the tricky photos and the falls. It’s pure theatre. I was indoctrinated early on into the cult of the Cox Plate. How could you not when racing was a popular topic at the Catholic Boys school I attended. If you were into racing, you were into the Cox Plate. Here are my top ten Cox Plate memories stretching from the first one I attended in 1976. Some are well known and part of racing folklore. Others are my quirky favourites. 99 RUNNINGS, ONLY ONE W.S. COX PLATE “The Land of the Rising Sun” – Lys Gracieux winning the 99th running of the W.S. Cox Plate By Michael Manley