Two-time Cox Plate winner Craig Williams is poised for an 18th ride in Australia’s weight-for-age championship this Saturday after being confirmed for roughie Attrition.
Williams, 48, will take his first ride aboard the 2023 Toorak Handicap winner in Saturday’s $6 million race in what is shaping as being an eight-horse field when final acceptances are taken at 8.30am on Tuesday.
Beau Mertens, who finished second in Saturday’s Caulfield Cup aboard River Of Stars, had ridden Attrition in most of his Victorian starts of late and was aboard the horse for his G1 win in the Toorak as well as his victory last year in the 2024 $2 million Hill Stakes at Randwick.
Attrition is rated around a $51 chance for Saturday’s race ahead of Tuesday morning’s final acceptances.
Craig Williams’ Cox Plate winning rides:
2006 – Fields Of Omagh ($19)
2011 – Pinker Pinker ($26)
Craig Williams’ Cox Plate runner-up rides:
2000 – Diatribe ($16)
2009 – Manhattan Rain ($19)
2019 – Castelvecchio ($8.50)
2021 – Anamoe ($3.60)
2023 – Mr Brightside ($9)