This weekend’s Cox Plate has drawn together a fascinating field featuring a host of international raiders to take on the best of the locals and while for the past four years Winx has made this event almost a foregone conclusion as she raced her way into the record books, this year we have something new and intriguing to excite racing fans.
Since 2009, the past ten Cox Plates have been won by some very interesting horses and with the exception of Winx and the ill-fated Pinker Pinker, all were stallions and those stallions have all sired Group I winners this year.
So You Think sired Nakeeta Jane to win the Group I ATC Surround Stakes, Ocean Park sired Kolding to win the Group I ATC Epsom Handicap, Shamus Award sired Mr Quickie to win the Group I Queensland Derby and Adelaide (IRE) sired Funstar to win the Group I ATC Flight Stakes.
A good horse always wins the Cox Plate and the quality that puts them in front on the post is frequently passed on with other Cox Plate winning stallions including New Zealand’s champion sire Savabeel and the mighty Octagonal, whose champion son Lonhro became a champion sire that has given us a another champion sire in Pierro.
Geldings and mares dominate the race this year with only two stallions and one colt engaged in Kluger (Jpn), Cape of Good Hope (IRE) and the three year-old Castelvecchio.
Kluger (King Kamehameha), we’ve seen here before and he’s outstanding, finishing fourth in the Group I ATC Doncaster and second to Winx in the Group I ATC Queen Elizabeth, so if he’s right he’s going to be in the finish.
Cape of Good Hope (Galileo) won the Group I Caulfield Stakes at his first Australian run and that’s always great form for this race.
Castelvecchio (Dundeel) is a class colt and gives every impression of running a strong 2000 metres and that’s usually the type of three year-old that can do well in a race where there is nowhere to hide.
