“There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still” - Franklin D Roosevelt.
From the mercurial Manfred to the wondrous Winx, for 105 years Moonee Valley has played host to some of the greatest thoroughbreds to stride the Australasian - or international - turf.
On one day of the year, for two exhilarating minutes, the iconic Melbourne racecourse becomes one of the greatest Colosseums in sport.
In that unique hothouse atmosphere, incredible feats have been enacted, reputations have been made or blown to pieces and champion status has been cemented or lost.
And it's all about to change.
Major redevelopment of famous racecourses and their facilities is always met with a degree of apprehension by racing fans.
For the most part the outcome is positive - Flemington, Randwick for example - though we will always lament the loss of a beloved old grandstand, a quiet corner from where horses can be viewed away from the crowds, a favourite garden seat or a historic vantage point.
The Moonee Valley redevelopment is different.
We're losing the actual racetrack we know, and none of the racing and punting lore unique to this venue, built up over the previous decades, will apply.
The famously short straight (137m) - gone.
The new Valley straight will be 317m, longer than the Ascot, Canterbury or Morphettville Parks straights, and just a tad shorter than at Warwick Farm.
The course will be widened from 24 to 27m wide to allow bigger fields. A new rail system will allow for capacity fields of sixteen.
Imagine a field just two horses short of Caulfield Cup size going round in a Cox Plate!
The winning post will be moved to what is now the 400m mark - the famous “School,” where the Cox Plate contenders have always launched their runs.
The 1800m -odd circumference of the current racetrack will be reduced to 1700m.
The current grandstand - gone. Residential apartments will sit in that location.
The inner chute - gone. The infield will be populated with football ovals, soccer pitches, hockey fields, tennis courts, playgrounds - somebody mentioned mini-golf.
It will still be known as The Valley - but it will be a different racecourse.
Thus the racing styles of winning horses will naturally change from that of the “Valley specialist” as we know it.
The MVRC assures us it will retain the highly cambered home turn to retain the “velodrome” feel unique to this world famous track.
But it's all a bit daunting to contemplate!
The gates will close after Saturday and won't re-open until 2027 - if all goes to plan. Flemington will host the 2026 Cox Plate meeting.
On the eve of the last Cox Plate to run on the old Valley track we know and love, we'll look back at the story of what is now the Southern Hemisphere's WFA championship race.
But first, let's set the scene.
William Samuel (WS) Cox (1831-1895) was a pioneer of thoroughbred racing in Australia.
Having previously operated Kensington Park racecourse until 1882, Cox opened Moonee Valley in 1883 on a parcel of farmland purchased from one JF Feehan.
Private ownership of the land upon which it sits makes Moonee Valley a unique racetrack.
In the 1960s great expansion was carried out, after the MVRC sold off land for the development of the Tullamarine Freeway.
Having long hosted dual code race meetings, in the 1970s Moonee Valley ceased to be a harness racing venue and “the trots” relocated to the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds.
Back in 1922 the club had introduced a prestigious weight for age middle distance race which would serve as its showpiece, and carry the name of its founder W S Cox.
Though always regarded as an important race, in the first years of its existence the Cox Plate wasn't part of any “big three.”
There was only the “big two” - the Cups.
The inaugural Cox Plate of 1922 was won by the imported stallion Violoncello.
Right from the start it has been a race that marks out a sire of the future, and recognition of this fact became a major impetus behind its rise to exalted status.
In fact, the first five runnings were taken out by horses who would go on to sire winners of what are now G1 races.
Only two years after Violoncello kicked things off, the mighty Manfred saluted.
This magnificent son of the champion sire Valais was a grandson of Epsom Derby winner Cicero.
Manfred officially raced 28 times, but only took part in 22 of them!
In the AJC Derby of 1925, the colt stood in the gates and refused to move. Jockey Billy Duncan finally urged him to set out after the field, who had already gone 100m. Manfred rounded them up and won comfortably.
A week later, he couldn't be cajoled into taking part in the Caulfield Guineas at all - but at his next two starts won the Cox Plate and VRC Derby. At four he won the Caulfield Cup.
Manfred became a champion sire and his best offspring was The Trump, who did the coveted Cups double in 1937.
A year after Manfred's victory it was another son of Valais named Heroic who won the Cox Plate, and he became a far greater sire.
That really set the tone and elevated the reputation of the race as one of crucial importance to the Australasian breeding industry.
Heroic's son Ajax won the Cox Plate of 1938.
This week we unexpectedly lost one of the Cox Plate's greatest dual winners, international superstar and magnificent sire So You Think.
The 10 x G1 winning son of High Chaparral was absolutely elite - by any measure - and his death is particularly poignant at this moment in time.
Respected breeding analyst Kristen Manning recently compiled a fascinating table of Cox Plate sires by G1 winners (or their equivalent) produced.
Heroic sat second only to Savabeel (we'll get to the Zabeel dynasty!) and in third was So You Think, followed by mighty Rubiton.
Manfred and Chatham were still holding their ground ahead of the likes of Octagonal, Shamus Award, Noholme and Ocean Park.
Only two Cox Plate champions have sired a winner of the race - Heroic (Ajax) and Rubiton (Fields Of Omagh).
Perhaps we might see one of So You Think's last progeny win one of the “new” Cox Plates - that would provide a fitting bridge between the past and the future.
Or perhaps a winner by the 2022 champion Anamoe, who avenged his unlucky loss as a 3YO the year before.
History beckons - but back to the past, and the great sire Night Raid.
He had briefly raced in Australia, but it was from NZ that he stamped his indelible legacy on the Cox Plate.
His two great sons Phar Lap and Nightmarch were fierce rivals on the track. Though Phar Lap achieved immortality, Nightmarch carved out some history of his own, in 1929 becoming the first horse to win the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup - beating Phar Lap! - in the same year.
The next year Phar Lap did that elusive double and in 1931 almost did it again, only going down to Chatham, who would win two Cox Plates himself and become another of the great sires to win the race.
In 1976 Sovereign Edition tasted glory when his daughter Surround became the only 3yo filly to ever win the Cox Plate - and she did it in a season when she won three Oaks as well.
Little wonder her old man went on to become a celebrated broodmare sire!
Star Kingdom was well involved with the Cox Plate action of course - siring his first winner Kingster in 1955, followed by Noholme and Star Affair. Then his great son Bletchingly sired the horse who would become synonymous with Cox Plate greatness - Kingston Town.
“The King"'s threepeat was the pinnacle for this line, but it also produced three of the most beloved Cox Plate heroes - Bonecrusher, Super Impose and Gunsynd!
Zabeel's sire Sir Tristram had already played a role in Cox Plate history - Empire Rose, Fair Sir and Grosvenor had all placed - but he hadn't got a winner.
His greatest son, foaled in 1986 from the French-bred Nureyev daughter Dame Giselle, would avenge that injustice.
Zabeel was born on the very same day Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star fought an epic two horse war at the Valley - in what many still regard as the greatest Cox Plate of all time.
As he wobbled to his feet beside his mum at Cambridge Stud, little did baby Zabeel know of how this day - his birthday - would forever come to be linked with his name.
Yet his own hopes in the race were cruelled by illness and injury.
Zabeel was bred by Swettenham Stud in partnership with emerging powerhouse Arrowfield, and had been one of the most desirable lots to go through the ring at the NZB National sale of 1988.
Keen bidding ensued on the beautiful dark bay colt, and it was Colin Hayes who teamed up with Sheikh Hamdan's Angus Gold to part with NZ $650,000 (it was big money then!) to secure him.
Zabeel would race out of Lindsay Park - and Hayes had the job of turning him into a champion.
At his first start the colt ran last, and then-assistant trainer David Hayes has often recalled his father's furious reaction to this dashing of expectations.
The son of Sir Tristram next ran seventh at Flemington - and then Hayes senior whipped out a set of blinkers.
It was all systems go from there, and to this day “blinkers first time” in the form guide next to the name of a Zabeel-bred horse brings a light to the punter's eye.
At three the colt won the G2 MV (now Stutt ) Stakes at The Valley and was fourth in the G1 Caulfield Guineas, looking like he wanted nothing more than to get to 2040m.
Zabeel was well fancied for the Cox Plate, but disaster struck in the form of a virus and he tailed off last - as the imported stallion Almaarad stormed to victory. Oh the irony.
In the autumn Hayes had his colt back in fine fettle, and Zabeel achieved his career defining victory in the G1 Australian Guineas, with an imperious win over Ark Regal and Stylish Century.
Having returned at four to take the G1 Craiglee (Makybe Diva) at WFA, the Cox Plate was the target. Then Zabeel broke down.
Back in NZ, Sir Patrick Hogan - with his uncanny judgement - had earmarked Zabeel as the one colt he must stand at Cambridge Stud to carry on the Sir Tristram dynasty, and relentlessly outbid Hayes to acquire him.
Back Zabeel went across the Tasman to the place of his birth, where he would become the most influential Australasian - bred stallion of the late 20th and early 21st century.
He would produce 166 stakes winners, including 46 Group 1 winners and claim 27 separate stallion titles across New Zealand and Australia.
His Cox Plate winners were Might And Power, Octagonal, Maldivian and Savabeel (the first three year old since Octagonal to win) - while Caulfield Cup winner Sky Heights was placed.
“Ocky”'s son Lonhro went so close when third in 2003 to Fields Of Omagh. Reset, who won the Australian Guineas like his sire, got surprise 2011 winner the bonny mare Pinker Pinker and gallant grey Fawkner, just pipped by Adelaide in 2014. The legendary Verry Elleegant, third in 2021,was out of a mare by Zabeel son Zed.
Zabeel is also the broodmare sire of Cox Plate winner Ocean Park and of placegetters Samantha Miss, Humidor (twice to Winx) and Silent Achiever.
Castelvecchio by Dundeel (High Chaparral x Zabeel's daughter Stareel ) was second in a Cox Plate and his daughter Aeliana runs on Saturday - she is bred 5f x 5f to Zabeel.
Aeliana will attempt to join Tranquil Star (twice), Flight (twice), Surround (filly), Dane Ripper, Sunline (twice), Makybe Diva, Pinker Pinker, the Valley Queen Winx ( four times), Japan's Lys Gracieux and of course - the defending champion Via Sistina, as members of the fairer sex to win the Cox Plate.
Winx broke Might And Power's race and track record and dethroned “The King” when she won an unheard-of fourth Cox Plate in 2018.
The freakish mare was by Street Cry, also the grandsire of Anamoe - this is a line that loves the “old” Valley too.
Last year Via Sistina not only broke that record again, she unleashed the greatest winning margin in 105 years of Cox Plate history as well.
When you think of the incredible horses that have won this race, many of the all time greats that haven't been paid their due in this short story because it has mainly had a breeding focus - what Via Sistina did was beyond exceptional!
Unlike their no-holds barred onslaught on the Cups, the Cox Plate wasn't a major focus of overseas trainers and their spring raiders until relatively recent times.
Irish bred stallions have claimed three - with Adelaide kicking things off in 2014, Sir Dragonet in 2020 and State Of Rest in 2021.
Lys Gracieux was memorable when storming to victory for Japan in 2019, and Romantic Warrior flew the flag for Hong Kong in 2023.
The march of time, the winds of change - humans have coined many phrases to sum up the shifting sands of life.
The future is always beckoning us on, even as the past tugs at our heart strings.
In 2027 a new era of champions at The Valley will begin. It won't look the same, but the greatest of Cox Plate winners in the years and decades ahead will be no less great than those who went before.
