It’s the best two minutes in sport, an exhilarating contest of most of the finest horses you can gather from these parts, and the race the purists say is the greatest one Australasia has got.

And we will never see its like again.

For it’s the famous Cox Plate, Moonee Valley’s time-honoured, annual 2040-metre highlight, and it’s having its last running on Saturday before the famous Melbourne track undergoes a massive makeover.

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Phar Lap, Tulloch, Makybe Diva, Might And Power, three-time winner Kingston Town and of course the mighty four-time winner Winx – and dozens more stars besides – having written chapters in the race’s illustrious history, building its reputation as the weight-for-age championship of Australasia.

So much of that history is entwined with the quirky nature of the Valley itself. It’s a compact, tight-turning rectangle where runs are made down the “school side” approaching the home turn into one of the shortest home straights in the country – a 173m dash for home under the roaring grandstands. Some horses hate it.

But after Saturday, all that will change. Moonee Valley will be reconfigured, rotated 90-degrees clockwise, if you will, with that long side (named for the school beside it) to become a more lengthy home straight of 317 metres.

The $220 million track makeover might detract somewhat from the charm and allure of the place, but it won’t change the allure of the Cox Plate, even when it’s run at Flemington next year while the works at the Valley continue.

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This year’s has served up another must-watch event.

Sir Delius, a high-priced British import for everybody’s favourite dotty aunt Gai Waterhouse, was a raging favourite for the Plate and the Melbourne Cup, having scored three dominant wins and a narrow second since hightailing it out of the Rainy Isles for sunny Australia.

But he was ordered out of the Plate and the Cup last week under strict Victorian protocols guarding against injuries, after veterinary scans suggested he might be at risk of breaking down.

What that has done is create a very open Cox Plate field which, if not quite a vintage year, is full of intrigue.

Via Sistina – last year’s astonishing winner in a record-smashing time and by an equal record margin – is back, and will likely start favourite, but will have plenty of opposition from Queenslander Antino, and Victorian mare Treasurethe Moment, and her own stablemate Aeliana.

All are in single-figure odds in a nine-horse field, also featuring smokey chances such as the giant-killing Globe and Buckaroo.

Let’s take a look…

Via Sistina (IRE) ridden by James McDonald wins the Ladbrokes Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse on October 26, 2024 in Moonee Ponds, Australia. (Photo by Reg Ryan/Racing Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

WHAT IS IT?

The 105th Cox Plate, a weight-for-age epic over 2040m.

Class-wise, it’s consistently there or thereabouts as the best race Australasia has, and regularly one of the finest in the world, according to the international ratings people. It was equal 10th on official world rankings last year.

The Melbourne Cup is of course Australia’s greatest thing, racing or otherwise, but the Cox Plate is held up as this racing-mad country’s highest-quality race, since it’s run under weight-for-age conditions.

That means horses carry weights according to how old they are and not according to their form, as with handicaps like the Melbourne and Caulfield cups. That way, generally the best will shine out, not those with the fairest weights.

Crusty old racing blokes in hats will talk about a few dozen annual fixtures as being “a good ‘orse’s race” for the regular quality of its winners. The Cox Plate could instead be called a “champion’s race”, looking at its honour roll.

A Group 1 for three-year-olds and up, it’s named after William Samuel Cox, one of Australia’s first certified sport nuts. In 1883 he founded the club and track where the event is run, Moonee Valley, having bought the land from a man who’d bought it from “Long” John Moonee.

Known by most as “The Valley”, it’s still – until the bulldozers roll in next week – a quirky little rectangular course, only 1800m in circumference with a 173m dash to the line. (The circumference will only be 1700m after the renos, but it will have that longer 317m home straight). Flemington, in contrast, is a roomy 2400m around with a long home straight of 420m.

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Hence, a lot of horses who might like Flemington don’t fancy the Valley, especially the big, long-striding ones. Conversely, there are the much-loved “Valley specialists” who’d love to race there and only there.

Plus, the Cox Plate is held over probably the best, most testing, distance in racing – a mile and a quarter – in which horses need both those ingredients of speed and stamina more than any other. (A mile and a quarter is more like 2000m. The Valley runs this over 2040m, to use the full length of its home straight at the start).

The field jumps from the top of the straight and it’s often a high-speed frenzy for positions, before the first tight turn after 200m – although this year’s compact nine-horse field will probably make this edition a bit more orderly. It may be more tactical too. Ben Melham on the likely leader, Globe, may try to set a soft pace. Will the other jockeys let him, or will someone stick their neck out to put pressure on him?

Things usually stay fairly calm up the Dean Street side and over the back, but then the heat comes on down “the school side”, from the 800m to the 600m. Passing Australia’s most famous educational institution (to racing fans anyway) – Moonee Ponds Central School – the runs start to come as the pressure builds to the home corner, before the dash to the line.

Via Sistina (IRE) ridden by James McDonald returns to the mounting yard after winning the Ladbrokes Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse on October 26, 2024 in Moonee Ponds, Australia. (Photo by Reg Ryan/Racing Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

WHAT’S IT WORTH?

$6 million. The winner will take home $4 million, and there’s strong incentive just to make it into the race, with second prize $800,000, and with even eighth place bagging $100,000.

WHEN’S IT ON?

Stop everything this Saturday at 5.40pm for race 10, the lucky last – and literally the last race at Moonee Valley as we know it.

WHERE CAN YOU WATCH IT?

At the course in Melbourne’s inner north, on Racing.com, Sky Racing or Channel 7. You can also listen in on racing radio stations, and follow the day live on foxsports.com.au.

BEST BARRIERS: Gate six, with seven winners in the past 35 years – including State Of Rest three years ago; 11 has had five in that time (though not in use this year), and 7 has had five. Worst barriers: 8 has had no winners in that time frame.

AGE: In the past 25 runnings, four-year-olds have won eight times, six-year-olds seven times, five-year-olds five times, and three-year-olds three, plus two seven-year-olds and a nine-year-old.

MAIN PLOT LINES

Via Sistina is an Irish-bred mare who was sold as a yearling for a paltry sum equating to around $9,700. She soon looked alright, winning five out of 13 races, including a Group 1 (the top of the four categories of the exceptional black type special races).

But after being bought by megabucks Chinese racing tragic Zhang Yuesheng for the Australian wing of his Yulong thoroughbred empire, Via Sistina became an out-and-out superstar.

From her first 12 Australian starts, she won nine of them – all Group 1s – helping her earn the Horse of the Year title for season 2024-25. One of those wins was last year’s Cox Plate, where she matched Winx’s record race margin of eight lengths, and obliterated the same mare’s record time by 1.87 seconds, or roughly about nine lengths.

Plot twist: Her last two starts have led many to question whether she’s still got it, at the age of eight – even if she’s biologically a northern-hemisphere born seven-and-a-half year old.

After winning the Winx Stakes in her first run this spring, Via Sistina was a raging $1.80 favourite for Flemington’s Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) but could manage only third. Mind you, it was a small six-horse field which contributed to Mr Brightside being allowed to lead at a pace you might see at the Olympics – in the 20km walk – making him impossible to catch at the finish.

But then Via Sistina fronted up again as $2.60 favourite in the Turnbull Stakes – over roughly the Cox Plate distance at 2000m – and looked a touch underwhelming, finishing third again, beaten 2.2 lengths, behind Sir Delius and Antino.

Horses take great benefit from their first go at 2000m in a campaign to their second, and master trainer Chris Waller has a knack of having them cherry ripe for their big day. But there’s a bit of swirling doubt Via Sistina will have to slay if she’s to do a Brisbane Lions and go back-to-back.

Another Yulong-owned (and bred) mare, four-year-old Treasurethe Moment, has her own redemption story to write.

Considered too plain by Australia’s two main auction houses to make it into a yearling sale, she was kept by Yulong and sent to the medium-sized Mornington stable of the affable Matt Laurie.

And she emerged as a superstar three-year-old of last season, with eight straight wins. She made it nine when – stepping up to open company weight-for-age for the first time – she started this campaign with a purely awesome win in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m).

The spring seemed her oyster, but then she was struck down with an illness (colic), which cost her a race. She’s come back, but in questionable order, with two second placings as a red hot favourite, over 1600m and 2000m.

The latter was behind Cox Plate rival Globe, who in a four-horse field was another allowed to set a slow pace.

Treasurethe Moment should also make that improvement in her second straight run at 2000m, but she does have some admirers to win back.

Standing against those mares are Antino, a seven-year-old gelding nowhere near as glamorous as Via Sistina, Treasurethe Moment or even Aeliana, but a worthy second favourite nonetheless.

And Aeliana is a budding star for Waller who crushed the boys as a three-year-old filly when a five-length winner of the ATC Derby (2400m) at Randwick in the autumn. She’s had two seconds and then a fifth this spring, but again Waller will have her peaking for her grand final on Saturday.

There might be a spot of rain about, but probably not enough to disrupt the formguides.

FIRST WINNER: Violoncello (1922)

LAST WINNER: Via Sistina (2024)

FAMOUS WINNERS: Just about all of them. But let’s keep it to Phar Lap (twice), Ajax, Hydrogen (twice), Rising Fast, Redcraze, Tulloch, Gunsynd, Dulcify, Kingston Town (thrice), Bonecrusher, Might And Power, Sunline (twice), Northerly (twice), Makybe Diva, So You Think (twice), Anamoe and of course, the one and only four-time winner, Winx (2015-2018), Lys Gracieux, Romantic Warrior.

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OTHER MAJOR RACES ON THE DAY

FILLIES CLASSIC – Group 2, 1600m, Race 4, 1.50pm. A $300,000 race for some quality three-year-old females headed by Salty Pearl at around $2.90, Enviable at $3.40, Ruska Roma at $5 and Sunlit Serenade at $6.50.

CRYSTAL MILE — G2, 1600m, Race 7, 3.35pm. A $400,000 open mile which has drawn nine horses with the market topped by Golden Path at around $3.80, Oh TooGood at $4.20, and Rise At Dawn at $4.60.

McEWEN STAKES — Group 2, 1200m, Race 8, 4.10pm. An open weight-for-age sprint worth $300,000 in which betting is headed by last-start Valley G1 winner Charm Stone at $2.50, Tropicus at $4.40, and Niance at $5.

DRUMMOND GOLF VASE – Group 2, 2040m, Race 9, 4.50pm. Some smart three-year-old males going around in this $400,000 race, mostly with the hope of progressing to the VRC Derby next Saturday. The massive Godolphin empire of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed has the top two in betting, headed by raging favourite Observer for the Ciaron Maher stable at $2, and Options for Team McEvoy at $7, with Chris Waller’s Providence at $8.

THE COX PLATE FIELD

1. LIGHT INFANTRY MAN (Starting barrier 9) Approx wins odds: $51 Approx place odds: $8.

FOR: With Australia’s leading trainer of last season in Ciaron Maher, and has a superb jockey in Ethan Brown. Is a 7yo gelding but lightly raced with just 28 starts. Kicked off in Europe where he had five G1 placings, and has two G1 wins in Australia over roughly this trip, including the Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington in March. Should be in peak fitness after three runs back from a spell.

AGAINST: Has been struggling this time in, with his latest a ninth of 14 in Rosehill’s G2 Hill Stakes (1900m). His two Australian G1s haven’t exactly been vintage fields. Ran 7th of 11 in only Valley run, plus he’s drawn the outside starting gate. Prefer others.

2. ANTINO (6) $3.50/$1.35.

FOR: Quality, ultra-consistent gelding who’s in a great stable with Tony Gollan, winner of the past 12 Brisbane training premierships. Fine jockey in Blake Shinn, who won the Melbourne riding premiership last season and has gone with this ride over Globe, who he rode in his last-start victory. Has statistically the best starting gate in six. Second-highest rated horse in the field (120), and put himself in contention for this with a storming four-length win in the Doomben Cup in May. That was one of his two starts over 2000m. The other was his last-start second in the G1 Turnbull Stakes behind Sir Delius, who’s not here this time. Antino will be fitter for that run, and he’s another 7yo gelding who’s lightly raced with just 29 starts. Placed in both his Valley runs, and at his peak after three runs this preparation.

AGAINST: Not a whole lot. History? No Queensland-based horse has won this since the mighty Strawberry Road in 1983, but in the modern transport age, state borders don’t mean so much. This horse’s past three runs have been in Melbourne. One slight doubt is he’ll likely go back from the start and if there’s a lack of pace on it might make it hard work to catch the unspent leaders. But Shinn will likely be alert to this, and the horse can sustain a long run. Top chance.

Blake Shinn is seen after drawing barrier six for Antino at the barrier draw during Moonee Valley Breakfast With The Best Gallops at Moonee Valley Racecourse on October 21, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

3. ATTRITION (2) $51/$7.70.

FOR: Nice inside barrier and a great big-race jockey in Craig Williams, who’s won this race twice before in 2006 and 2011. Good young trainer in Mitch Freedman. Is a consistent 6yo stallion in solid form with minor placings the past three of his four starts this campaign. Last start strong second in Sydney’s G2 Hill Stakes (1900m). Placed in three of five Valley runs, and will be at peak fitness for this.

AGAINST: Has only had one try at this distance, for an 8th in the Australian Cup in March. Is a pretty reliable galloper, with a G1 win to his name, though that was over 1600m. He may find this 2040m tough, and though a lack of pace would help him, you’d be taking a leap of faith. Prefer others.

4. BUCKAROO (4) $15/$2.90.

FOR: Former Irish 7yo gelding, who’s also lightly raced with 29 starts. Master trainer in Chris Waller, who’s won five of the past 10 of these (admittedly four with one horse – Winx), and a great big-race jockey in Mark Zahra. Ran the outstanding Sir Delius to a 0.46 length second two starts back in a G1 over 1800m at Caulfield. Has class about him and should be at his peak after three runs this time in, for two thirds and a second. Good starting barrier from which he should take up an ideal position.

AGAINST: Despite his class, hasn’t been winning often of late, with five minor placings in his past nine outings. And one of those was his disappointing last start when third of only four in the race, behind Globe in the G1 Caulfield Stakes (2000m). That was the race Globe pinched after setting a dawdling pace, but you’d have liked to have seen Buckaroo do more than be beaten 3.75 lengths into third. Also hasn’t won over 2000m or thereabouts in nine attempts. He’s done alright at 2400m and 3200m, so 2000m isn’t too long for him, but is it his ideal trip? Bit of an enigma, this horse, who’s also never raced at the Valley. Place best.

5. GLOBE (7) $21/$3.70.

FOR: Like TV detective Columbo, Globe isn’t as daft as he looks. Another 7yo gelding, he went into the four-horse Caulfield Stakes last start as $8.50 third-favourite and wasn’t expected to trouble Treasurethe Moment and Buckaroo. But jockey Blake Shinn rode a masterful race in front / got away with blue murder, by setting a very slow pace, with the other jockeys letting him. In the home straight, with a full tank, he was able to ping away from them and bolt home by three lengths. Placed one from two at the Valley. From a leading stable in Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr, and with a strong jockey in Ben Melham.

AGAINST: Before that last start heist, he’d been running and not winning in some pretty plain handicaps, so he might really have won the lotto when rival jockeys let him dawdle in the Caulfield Stakes. The Valley can tend to favour leaders, but it’s doubtful the others will let him do similar in this nine-horse field in a major like the Cox Plate. It’s also significant that Shinn is riding Antino over him on Saturday. Place best.

6. VIA SISTINA (5) $2/$1.15.

FOR: Is Australia’s current Horse of the Year, a 10-time G1 winner, and reigning Cox Plate champ in some style, scoring last year by an equal record eight lengths and obliterating Winx’s track record in her only go at the Valley. That made her the equal second-best horse in the world, according to international ratings, and she still comes in here with the top rating in the race at 127 – well clear of the second-highest Antino on 120. Proved herself a superstar last season, and while she’s officially an 8yo, she’s still only seven-and-a-half biologically, having been imported from the northern hemisphere, and has had only 27 starts. Has regular rider, the great James McDonald, in the saddle, and is a very short-priced favourite for a reason.

AGAINST: While she won first-up this spring over 1400m, she’s managed only two thirds since. For lesser horses that’d be alright, since they were both G1s, but for her, the hot favourite both times, it represents a worrying dip in form. In the first of those, the Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) Mr Brightside was allowed to set a slow pace and won, but you’d still have liked to have seen Via Sistina do better than a 1.9 length third. In the second, the Turnbull (2000m), she was beaten 2.2 lengths behind Sir Delius and Antino. She did give that pair a hefty head start and came wide around the home turn, but looked a bit flat late on. She’ll need to lift, but in a nine-horse field and with that 2000m run under her belt, Waller should have her right at her peak for this. With her class and in this field, you could be forgiven for forgiving those last two runs. Hard to beat.

A general view of the Cox Plate at the Barrier Draw during Breakfast with the Best trackwork at Moonee Valley Racecourse on October 22, 2024 in Moonee Ponds, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Racing Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

7. TREASURETHE MOMENT (1) $9/$2.

FOR: Exceptional performer who gets in on a smallish weight of 55.5kg as a four-year-old mare. Won eight races in a row last season including three G1s to be crowned Australia’s Champion 3YO Filly. Made it nine straight first-up this campaign when – taking on open company for the first time – she produced a demoralising 2.5 length win in the G1 Memsie Stakes, over a distance of 1400m which many thought would be too short for her. After beating her own age and sex previously, this confirmed her as a budding superstar. Good trainer in Matt Laurie and her regular rider Damian Lane is a big race specialist.

AGAINST: Pretty much everything since the Memsie. She suffered a bout of illness (colic) which meant she missed the Makybe Diva Stakes, had a week off training and a month between runs. Then she returned with an underwhelming 1.75 length second in a G2 over 1600m in her first look at the Valley, before having the rug pulled from under her by Globe when a 3-length second to him in the Caulfield Stakes (2000m). Those two efforts, as favourite, weren’t Cox Plate-winning form. However, her trainer says she’s back to full fitness now after that colic bout, especially with that 2000m run under her belt, and had excuses in both those seconds, as a victim of riding tactics. Some faith is required, but she’s a class animal and you wouldn’t rule her out of winning. Each way.

8. AELIANA (8) $7/$1.80.

FOR: Another classy four-year-old mare. In the Waller stable, with Hugh Bowman flying back home from Hong Kong to ride – a man who knows all about this race having won it four times on Winx. Proved herself a top-liner in the autumn when she didn’t just beat the boys in the ATC Derby (2400m) but crushed them, winning by 5.2 lengths. Has been solid this preparation, with seconds in the Winx Stakes and Makybe Diva, before a 2.7 length fifth in the Turnbull.

AGAINST: Could have been a bit more impressive last start in the Turnbull, when she enjoyed a sweet run saving ground on the fence, but was passed in the straight by Via Sistina and made no ground on the leaders. Although she’ll strip fitter for that 2000m run, you’d have wanted to see more from a Cox Plate point of a view. Plus this is her first look at the Valley. Place best.

9. NEPOTISM (3) $21/3.70.

FOR: The big obvious is he’s a three-year-old who thus gets in with a tiny weight of 49.5kg. Has a capable lightweight rider in Zac Lloyd, and drawn well in gate three. This Team Hawkes trained colt shone as a two-year-old in the autumn, showing his potential to get a middle distance by winning the G1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick.

AGAINST: Form has been worrying since coming back as a three-year-old, with a ninth of 12, an eighth of nine, and a seventh of 15, all against his own age. That last one was the G1 Caulfield Guineas over 1600m, so he leaps straight up here to the testing 2000m – for the first time in his life, and in his first look at the Valley. Prefer others.

TIPS: 1. VIA SISTINA; 2. Treasurethe Moment; 3. Antino; 4. Globe.

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