Ladbrokes Cox Plate 100 - Saturday 24th October 2020

Bill Stutt would prove an instrumental figure in shaping the Cox Plate as we know it today and more so in 1978 when he was appointed Chairman. At that point, the W.S. Cox Plate was worth $150,000, but within two years had increased to $200,00 “No competitor is given a start in the ultimate athletic test for the Olympics – and so it should be with racing” – Stutt said on his belief of Weight-for-Age racing. By this stage, the W.S. Cox Plate was known as the MVRC’s feature race and had taken over from the Moonee Valley Gold Cup which began long before in 1883. “We led the march on the Moonee Valley Committee that the Cox Plate had to become the No.1 race in Australia, if not the No.1 race in the world,” Ian McEwen said. For 20 years, McEwen was the inspiration of the Moonee Valley Racing Club in his role as chief executive from 1970 - 90. It wouldn’t be long after and the ‘classic Cox Plates’ we know today would follow. The first $200,000 W.S. Cox Plate was the first of Kingston Town’s trilogy (1980-1982) and then the ‘Race of the Century’ followed in 1986 between Kiwi rivals Bonecrusher and Our Waverly Star. There was the T.J. Smith domination of seven Cox Plates and Brent Thomson who dominated with four in five years during the 70’s. The turn of the century would see Sunline and Northerly and the great Makybe Diva etch their name into the record books. But none will overturn the chapter of Winx and her four W.S. Cox Plate triumphs. The family has two life members of the Moonee Valley Racing Club – Gordon Newton and John Peter Maclellan – and in 2006 the WS Cox family was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. Violoncello wins the first ever W.S. Cox Plate in 1922 conducted over a distance of 1900m