Internationals target Cox Plate

The Moonee Valley Racing Club has been rewarded for their renewed push into the international market with 20 of the 137 entries for this spring’s Cox Plate being trained overseas.The Valley’s head of racing Charlotte Mills said at Tuesday’s release of the nominations that the date of the Cox Plate this year meant the club focussed on attracting international runners to follow on the heels of last year’s stunning success by Hong Kong champion Romantic Warrior.“Whilst the noms collectively are down (from 178 last year), it is good to see we are 18 per cent up in internationals as we’ve done a lot of work this year in going over and attracting runners internationally,” Mills said.“We knew this year was going to be difficult as we are literally wedged between a King Charles and a Golden Eagle.“I think for us, our excitement this year is about the prospect of potential Japanese runners.“Of the 20 nominated that are internationals, it is really positive to see three of those - Prognosis, Killer Ability, Hishi Iguazu - are from Japan.“We obviously haven’t had a runner in the Cox Plate from Japan since Lys Gracieux in 2019, so its been half a decade, so it’s really good to see three genuine prospects on the list.“Those horses are well travelled. I think the win last year of Romantic Warrior has put that travelling Japanese dimension on the map.“Naturally, we are disappointed Romantic Warrior isn’t backing up, but he has another program ahead.”COX PLATEInternationally-trained winners past 10 years:2014 – Adelaide (Aidan O’Brien)2019 – Lys Gracieux (Yoshito Yahagi)2021 – State Of Rest (Joseph O’Brien)2023 – Romantic Warrior (Danny Shum)<a href="https://cdn.racing.com/-/media/racing/2024-spring-noms/2024coxplatenoms">Click here to view the Cox Plate noms</a>.

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Do Not Publish Internationals target Cox Plate | The Valley​

Do Not Publish Internationals target Cox Plate | The Valley