THE FORECAST: Cox Plate Memories

THE FORECAST: COX PLATE MEMORIES

For true racing fans, the Cox Plate is a real “where were you when” sort of race. the Melbourne Cup is the race that stops a nation, the race that changes lives, the race where winners become household names – if only for a week.

But the Cox Plate is a heavyweight title, Ali vs Foreman, the melee at the Valley, the weight for age rage, you get the point. It’s the race where legends are made.

I’ve been lucky to see my share of great Cox Plates, here are my favourites.,

2000 – SUNLINE

I will NEVER forget my first Cox Plate. 17 years old, just knocked off Year 12, we hitched three different lifts to get to The Valley to watch the Kiwi champion. We’d rolled Skalato into Falvelon and sent the winning round again on Sunline; I still remember vividly weaving through he crowd on the public lawn to watch the race, then the image of Sunline, eight or nine lengths clear turning for home, sailing past us in glorious isolation.

2004 – SAVABEEL

With my mate Keefy in tow, we hit The Valley with a one-track mind – to back Grand Armee in the Cox Plate. By a stroke of luck, we ran into my uncle, connected with the Rogerson camp at the time, who urged us to put Savabeel into everything we did. After doing our balls early, we resolved to tip everything left into the quaddie – Savabeel as a lynch pin in the first leg. Home he steamed. When Dandy Kid (which is what we were) won the last at $15, we collected a stack of cash and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to pick up the girls behind the bar, and then the girls at the drive through at the local KFC. Sadly, our luck had run out, but we ate our share of Zinger burgers.

2005 – MAKYBE DIVA

After my first car – a glorious matt-silver Toyota Corona with 400,000k’s on the clock and a home-made red racing stripe known locally as the Sardine Can – caught fire on the Monash one fateful August afternoon, I was in dire need of new wheels. I decided Makybe Diva was the answer. I was driving a delivery van while studying and saved everything I could to have on the champ. I walked through the gates, straight to bookmaker Anthony Doughty and had everything I had on the great mare top fluc in cash. I screamed myself horse as she rolled round the field to glory and the following week bought a jet-black Mitsubishi Magna with sick mag wheels and subwoofer. The replay is even better in Chinese.

2010 – SO YOU THINK

The pin up boy of mid-2000s racing. What an absolute beast. Seriously, the likes of Winx should count themselves lucky that they didn’t race in the era that Bart’s last great champion was carving up the track. Movie star looks, a rabid appetite for a contest and acceleration of a Ferrari, witnessing this creature in full flight at The Valley was an honour and a privilege.

2019 – LYS GRACIEUX

I love international racing so when it was announced that Japan was making a comeback to the Spring Carnival with an up-and-coming stayer and a talented young mare, my ears and wallet, tingled. I bet accordingly and boldly. When Mer De Glace put the first leg away in the Cox Plate I went to The Valley fingers crossed but nervous, staring down the barrel of a very large collect. I think I stood in front of Lys Gracieux’s stall for three races, I needed to know she was OK, cool calm and collected. I needn’t worry. I vigorously dry humped the poor soul standing in front of me in the stands as she looped the field and charged to glory. What a day. What a horse.

It’s PROGNOSIS for the win this year. I’ll be there to witness the birth of another legend.

BEST: Moonee Valley R5 No. 4 KINGSWOOD

BEST EACH-WAY: Randwick 8 No. 7 MAKARENA

BEST ROUGHIE: Moonee Valley R8 No. 2 VON HAUKE