On Track - Summer 2019-20

6 They had the horse and their jockey; it was just a matter of the perfect plan now being executed. The build-up to this year’s edition was dominated from the outset around its final make up, with the start of the MVRC Committee meeting on the morning of the Breakfast with the Best beamed across the nation on Racing.com. Doors were closed as discussions began, with racing Twitter alive with chatter on who will make the final field. The Committee took some bold steps and elevated 3YO Castelvecchio and New Zealand’s rising star Te Akau Shark above Cox Plate stalwarts Humidor and Gailo Chop and while the headlines the next day read of a poor decision made, time ultimately told that it was the right one given the second and third placings respectively. The dreamers were hoping Tasmanian mare and reigning All-Star Mile champion Mystic Journey would land a blow for the locals, while the script writers saw Kings Will Dream returning from near death the year before as an even bigger story in waiting. But as the imposing Japanese contingency arrived at The Valley hours before the race in their brash and dazzling outfits, both handlers and horse, something suggested that the 24,646 people on course were about to witness something special. What we have all witnessed in the last four Cox Plates with champion mare Winx will live in the collective minds of those who saw it for the rest of their lives. How does one possibly follow that? With 400 metres to go, Lys Gracieux was six lengths off the rampaging Castelvecchio with only four horses behind her, and as she took to the corner, it reminded many of a crab scuttling across the sand down at the local Altona Beach. One LEGENDARY moment for all those involved in Lys Gracieux. Connections pose with their trophies. Damian Lane is all smiles.