An emotional week in Australasian racing approaches its crescendo as we count down to the final Cox Plate before a radical new era in its history begins and we mourn the passing of one of its greatest champions.
So You Think was everything a thoroughbred should be, or could be - both on and off the track. We won't see another quite like him!
His name lives alongside the likes of Phar Lap, Chatham, Young Idea, Beau Vite, Tranquil Star, Flight, Hydrogen, Tobin Bronze, Sunline, Northerly and Fields Of Omagh as a dual winner of The Cox Plate.
Only Kingston Town won three, reigning supreme until Winx - almost unbelievably - won four.
So You Think also stands with Manfred, Delta, Noholme, Star Affair, Rajah Sahib, Taj Rossi, Red Anchor, Surround (filly), Octagonal,Savabeel and Shamus Award as some of the rare three year olds blessed with ability to win the great WFA championship.
Turf immortals Heroic, Amounis, Rising Fast, Tulloch, Aquanita, Gunsynd, Dulcify, Strawberry Road, Bonecrusher, Rubiton, Better Loosen Up, Super Impose, Saintly, Might And Power and Makybe Diva all feature on the Cox Plate honour roll.
Read more about the history of the Cox Plate and the bloodlines behind many of its winners here.
Before we look at the 2025 Cox Plate, let's take a spin down memory lane!
Bonecrusher V Our Waverley Star - 1986
It was billed as a match race and exceeded the wildest expectations! Two Kiwi -bred superhorses, Bonecrusher (Pag-Asa) and Our Waverley Star (Star Way) put on a display of all that is unique about the NZ thoroughbred.
Their titanic Cox Plate battle became known as “the race of the century,” - and of course the great Bill Collins had the call to match it.
Kingston Town Can't Win! - 1982
“The King” was shooting for history and a third straight Plate but was scrubbed up back in the field and looked a million to one as they entered the straight.
Bill Collins was only voicing what everyone was thinking when he said “Kingston Town can't win” - but barely were the words out of his mouth when the big black son of Bletchingly sprouted wings.
Northerly V Sunline V Viscount - 2001
The indomitable Sunline (Desert Sun) already had two Cox Plate triumphs to her name when a new seeker of the crown, Northerly, rocked up at the Valley.
The West Australian bred son of Serheed wasn't a particularly impressive horse - until he set foot on a racetrack. There he became “The Fighting Tiger”. He was back the following year to win it again - after leading all the way with 58kg to claim the Caulfield Cup.
The Diva untouchable - 2005
It just doesn't happen. A seven year old mare, winner of two Melbourne Cups and a Sydney Cup, trucking around The Valley like a three year old with fresh legs and no weight. At her next start Makybe Diva claimed her historic third Melbourne Cup.
In 2025, a small but select field of eight G1 winners will run for glory.
Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) is back to defend her title, while ATC Derby heroine Aeliana (Castelvecchio) and 3 x G1 winner Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) complete one of the most impressive female Cox Plate contingents seen in many a year.
The imposing Antino (Redwood) attempts to become the first Queenslander to win the WFA championship since the great Strawberry Road back in 1983.
Buckaroo (Fastnet Rock) is a Waller warhorse, weighted out of a second try at the Caulfield Cup and a proven WFA performer.
2024 G1 Australian Cup winner Light Infantry Man (Fast Company )needs to lift, but the import has shown great ability on his day.
Six year old Attrition (Churchill) loves the Valley, and has plied his wares as a top miler with G1 success - but has also won and placed in a 1900m Hill Stakes.
Could he transition, as Antino has done, into a true middle distance horse in his later career?
Nepotism (Brutal) flies the flag for the three year old generation and had some excuses for his unplaced Caulfield Guineas run.
He absolutely looked like a Cox Plate horse in the making when winning the G1 Champagne Stakes in remarkable fashion. Nepotism will need to be something special to figure in this finish - but he is bred to be!
Top Pick: VIA SISTINA
It’s now one of the iconic photos of the Australian turf - the riderless Cox Plate favourite charging straight towards the camera, with the dejected J Mac a distant blur behind her.
The horror! As Via Sistina cut laps of the Valley, onlookers at the 2024 Breakfast With The Stars anxiously held their breath, and the media contingent went Code Red.
Only trainer Chris Waller remained cool and calm.
“Do not panic,” he said, in full Zen master mode as he took charge of the recaptured mare, who finished the week with a record-breaking Cox Plate win..
Now eight years old, Via Sistina attempts to defend her WFA champion title on Saturday and is the greatest of so many great horses sired by Fastnet Rock, who passed away this year.
Via Sistina is the best of two winners from the unraced Nigh, a half-sister by breedshaper Galileo to dual GI winning sprinter Kingsgate Native.
Their dam Native Ridge is by the influential broodmare sire Indian Ridge, son of Ahonoora.
Via Sistina's female line descends from the G2 winning Donna Cressida (Don), through her daughter Spanish Habit (Habitat)
Via Sistina's third dam La Pellegrina (Be My Guest) is a half sister to the G1 1,000 Guineas heroine Las Meninas (Glenstal).
Donna Cressida was the great grand dam of Australian G1 winning mare and top WFA performer Aqua D’amore by Danehill, who placed second in a Caulfield Cup and fourth in a Cox Plate.
This blue-blooded family goes back to the Irish Oaks winner Djebellica (Djebel), dam of champion sire Cambremont and ancestress of notable sires Shinko King, Dr Devious, Suzuka Phoenix, Stay Gold (sire of Orfevre and Gold Ship), Archway and Awesome Rock (Fastnet Rock).
Champion GB 3YO Filly and dual G1 winner Dancing Rain, Irish Oaks winner Even So, and European Champion 2YO Filly Maybe (by Galileo) descend from her - the last being the dam of Coolmore’s G1 winner and sire Saxon Warrior.
Djebellica is also the ancestress of Lonhro’s greatest achievement, juvenile Triple Crown winner Pierro, and of Cambridge Stud's elite son of Frankel, Chaldean.
Via Sistina is bred
Northern Dancer 4m,5m x 4m,5m
Blue Hen Natalma 5m,5f x 5m sex balanced
She is bred on the same famed Fastnet Rock / Galileo nick as Cox Plate rival Buckaroo - an extension of the Galileo / Danehill nick.
She is linebred to the great French sire Djebel (anchoring her female line through Djebellica) via his tail male descendants Klairon (twice), Djeddah and My Babu.
Her second damsire Be My Guest is from the family of Fastnet Rock, reinforcing that nick which works so well.
I'm backing Via Sistina's innate greatness to shine through in the big moment, the genius of her trainer and the big race jockey who knows her so well.
Mares good enough to win it once, also have a pretty good record at claiming a second Cox Plate.
A fitting team of champions they would be to sign us off with a glorious finale to the “old” Cox Plate!
Via Sistina and J Mac will jump from barrier 5.
Next best: AELIANA
Four year old Aeliana will race for the first time at The Valley on Saturday, but has the pedigree to feel at home.
Her sire, the G1 Guineas winning Dundeel son Castelvecchio was runner up to the wonderful Japanese mare Lys Gracieux in the 2019 edition.
Her dam is by Star Witness, son of Starcraft who was third in Savabeel's Cox Plate - her second dam is a Galileo daughter and her fourth a daughter of Zabeel, providing for a 4f x 4f duplication of that Valley-loving sire.
The arrogant manner in which Aeliana won the G1 AJC Derby is something very rarely seen from a filly - she was only the second to win the Classic in the last 35 years, and she bolted in!
A $180,000 Karaka Book 1 purchase for Denise Marten's Star Thoroughbreds from the Rich Hill Stud draft, Aeliana is closely related to their G1 winning mare Invincibella (I Am Invincible).
Aeliana is bred
4m x 4m Sadlers Wells
4f x 4f Zabeel
Aeliana is the second foal and only stakes winner to date from her placed dam Temolie (Star Witness) - a half sister to G1 Tatts Tiara heroine Invincibella (I Am Invincible), to the excellent G2/G3 placed mile / middle distance mare Secret Blaze (Sizzling), and to stakes winning gelding Extreme Flight (Extreme Choice)
Temolie is domiciled at Rich Hill stud in NZ, and has two younger half sisters to Aeliana by champion sire Proisir yet to race.
Her granddam Abscond by Galileo was an unraced half sister to G1 VRC Derby placed Light Up Manhattan (Manhattan Rain) out of the winning Zabeel mare Luminata.
Luminata was a half sister to tough Kiwi stayers The Hind (Adelaide Cup) and the Geelong Cup winning mare Oregon Star - was out of the stakes winning mare Taciturn by the great Noble Bijou, from Top Secret by Mellay.
Aeliana’s ancestress Top Secret was by Never Say Die son Mellay out of a half sister to Starcraft's second dam Entrancing Belle - by Never Say Die son Battle- Waggon.
Aeliana's damsire Star Witness himself descends from a Battle- Waggon daughter, and what a great linebreeding pattern this is!
Waller has called on the services of former Winx pilot Hughie Bowman, who flies in from HK to partner Aeliana, and they'll jump from barrier 8.
Roughie: BUCKAROO
Bucky in his raceday stall will prick up his ears if the forecast rain showers come on Saturday!
Last year's Caulfield Cup runner up is at his best with a little cut in the ground - exactly what he didn't get in his previous two starts at Caulfield, but he still ran well in the G1 Yalumba /Underwood Stakes, and was excellent first up in the Memsie behind Cox Plate rival Treasurethe Moment.
The seven year old son of Fastnet Rock gave Via Sistina a real fight in the Turnbull last year on Soft 6 ground when he was fourth up, as he is here.
A stakes-winner in Ireland when trained by Joseph O’Brien, Buckaroo was gelded soon after his importation to Australia and arrival in the Waller stables. He hasn't looked back since then
Buckaroo’s half brother Middle Earth (Roaring Lion), a far more dour but classy horse, is on track for a 2025 Melbourne Cup tilt.
Buckaroo is bred
Northern Dancer 4m,5m x 4m
Blue Hen Natalma 5m,5f x 5m sex balanced (plus a line to her three quarter sister Cosmah)
It's Fastnet Rock x Galileo again, with lines to (distantly) related sires Royal Academy and Majestic Light, linebreeding to Raise A Native, lots of Blue Hen La Troienne and the aforementioned Broomstick - especially through Royal Academy and Raise A Native.
Notably Buckaroo is linebred to three quarter sisters and daughters of Blue Hen Lea Lark, the ancestress of Miswaki and Southern Halo.
Waller's warhorse has the stamina and the turn of foot that says he is definitely not out of place in a Cox Plate. The small field suits him and the Valley might too - it's his first time here.
Bucky and Mark Zahra will be giving it their all from barrier 4.
Blowout: NEPOTISM
The Hawkes camp maintain the faith in their three year old son of Brutal. It has to be said, the runs in the Caulfield Guineas that more obviously said “Cox Plate” were the winner Autumn Boy and the unlucky third horse Observer - but Nepotism’s run was better than it looked.
“He ran the fastest 800, the fastest 600 and the fastest 400 of the race, and he’s still trying to get out,” co-trainer Wayne Hawkes commented, after the dust had settled on the result.
Okay it's Wayno talking (and understandably a slightly biased viewpoint), but it certainly was a good run!
So You Think was not a G1 winner and was 7th in the Guineas before his first Cox Plate win - now I'm not comparing Nepotism to So You Think - but he is a talent.
I just keep going back to his incredible G1 Champagne Stakes win in the Autumn.
Winners of that race have a decent record of running well in the Cox Plate when they do go there.
Since 2010 the only Champagne winners to run in the Cox Plate at three have fared thus:
Broadsiding (3rd), Captivant (8th), Castelvecchio (2nd), Pierro (3rd), Helmet ( 8th).
Militarize was fairly unlucky not to at least place in 2023.
Nepotism is out of the unraced Brigite (Casino Prince) a full sister to Caulfield Guineas winner All Too Hard, who was beaten a neck by Ocean Park in the Cox Plate.
Brigite is a half-sister to the immortal Black Caviar and to Guineas winner Ole Kirk, so it’s a family not short on greatness.
Nepotism is bred
Last Tycoon 3m x 4f sex balanced
Danzig x 5m,5m
He is linebred to Silly Season through sons Lunchtime and Adios - a supreme nick as Adios is from the family of Grey Sovereign, and Lunchtime comes via Snippets who carries his daughter Lachine.
Silly Season's tail male line is that of Tom Fool, a sire duplicated in the pedigrees of many top stayers.
Nepotism's dam provides Grey Sovereign tail male through Kenmare and Warpath by Sovereign Path - the latter is sex balanced in this pedigree as he is fourth damsire of champion GB 3YO Golan - the big Classic influence in Brutal's pedigree.
Pompeii Court is from the family of Nepotism's ancestress Song Of Norway, both tracing to the mare Conjure, and this is also the family of Vain's grandsire Court Martial .
There is much obvious speed in Nepotism's pedigree, but when you look closer it does appeal as one which could produce a fast middle distance horse of the type the Cox Plate demands - and he's carrying 49.5kg.
Nepotism and Zac Lloyd jump from barrier 3.
