In honour of the founder of the Moonee Valley Racing Club, William Samuel Cox, the MVRC Committee decided to run a weight-for-age race over 2040m. 

Offering a purse of 1000 Pounds, the W.S. Cox Plate was first run in 1922 and was won by imported stallion Violencello. He was a seven-year-old who the previous year had won the Caulfield Cup at only his fifth start in Australia after being brought out from England.

Strategically placed on the racing calendar between the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, the W.S. Cox Plate has become a race of great importance and prestige. It is regarded as the best weight-for-age race in Australasia and one of the most exciting race days in the world. Since it's introduction in 1922, the W.S. Cox Plate has always attracted a field of the best horses on offer – the who’s who of the Australasian turf have won this race.

Phar Lap, Kingston Town, Rising Fast, Dulcify, Gunsynd, Super Impose, Octagonal, Might and Power, Sunline, Northerly and more recently champion mares Makybe Diva, So You Think and Winx, have all etched their names on the W.S. Cox Plate Wall of Champions that now takes pride of place in the Octagonal Member’s Lounge.

The achievements of Winx victorious in four consecutive years (2015 – 2016 – 2017 – 2018) now has her standing alone as the only four-time winner and the greatest we have ever seen at The Valley. 

The Cox Plate has been conducted over four different distances – 1900 metres (1922-1943), 2000 metres (1944-1973), 2050 metres (1974-1985) and 2040 metres (1986-current).

Today the Ladbrokes Cox Plate carries total prize money of $5,000,000. The W.S. Cox Plate has provided racegoers with many great turf memories and will continue to for many more years to come.

Renowned journalist and author Les Carlyon once wrote – “For a scribbler casting around pearls, the Cox Plate has become a tease. The problem is: how do you write about the race without appearing to slobber? I’ll explain.

Moonee Valley Racing Club, rather like that good colt Shakespeare in his Classic year, insists on staging masterpiece after masterpiece. They gave us the Kingston Town trilogy; that used up a few pearls. Then as a variation, they staged the Bonecrusher – Our Waverley Star slugfest. And how do you follow that?” 

The Group 2 Feehan Stakes is a Weight-for-Age race run over 1600m for horses aged three years old and above.

Run in September, the Feehan Stakes is the only ballot exempt race into the Ladbrokes Cox Plate and it always brings together a great mix of top milers and middle-distance horses early in their Spring preparations.

The Feehan Stakes has been a ballot exempt race into the W.S. Cox Plate since 2004, but it wasn't until 2020 that it became the only ballot exempt race, as previously four other races also carried the golden ticket. 

Some of the Champion horses that have completed the Feehan Stakes / Cox Plate double in the same year include Rising Fast 1954, Strawberry Road 1983, Rubiton 1987, Better Loosen Up 1990, Sunline 2000, Northerly 2001 and El Segundo 2007.

In 2021 Feehan Stakes prizemoney was uplifted from $250,000 to $500,000, but the main attraction remains the ‘win and you’re in’ ticket into our great race, the LEGENDARY Cox Plate.

RACE FIRST RUN: Saturday, October 28, 1922

LONGEST PRICED WINNERS
50/1 (Leonard-1946, Mosaic-1939); 40/1 (Dane Ripper-1997)

SHORTEST PRICED WINNERS
1/14f (Phar Lap-1931); 1/7f (Phar Lap-1930)

LEADING TRAINERS
Tommy Smith (7), Jack Holt (6), Bart Cummings (5), Chris Waller (4), Colin Hayes, Frank McGrath, Roy Shaw (3)

LEADING JOCKEYS
Darby Munro (5), Hugh Bowman, Jack Purtell, Brent Thomson, Glen Boss (4), Harold Badger, Neville Sellwood (3)

2022 Winner:
James McDonald

2021 Winner:
Jye McNeil

2020 Winner:
Jamie Kah, 15 points 

2019 Winners:
Jamie Kah/ Dwayne Dunn, 10 points

2018 Winners:
Hugh Bowman/ John Allen, 9 points

Named in honour of LEGENDARY rider Brent Thomson - ‘The Babe’ enjoyed a long and fruitful career in the saddle with over 2500 winners to his name worldwide. He was born in New Zealand in 1958 and by the time he turned 16 was champion apprentice.

It would be the following year as a 17-year-old that Thomson would win his first W.S. Cox Plate aboard Fury’s Order and begin one of the most dominant runs of any rider in the history of the race.

In the four years that followed, Thomson would win three consecutive W.S. Cox Plates from 1977-1979 aboard Family of Man and the Colin Hayes pair So Called and the brilliant Dulcify.

Given Thomson’s remarkable success in Australasia’s Weight-for-Age Classic, the Brent Thomson Jockey Challenge was first introduced in 2018. 

All riders competing at the race meeting(s) will be eligible, including apprentices and those visiting Victoria from interstate or overseas. The Moonee Valley Racing Club will run 18 races across the 2021 Ladbrokes Cox Plate Carnival with eight races on Friday night 22 October 2021 and ten races on Saturday 23 October 2021.

Points will be allocated on all races across the race meeting to the first three official placegetters on a 3-2-1 points.

In the event of a dead heat, the points will be split as follows: 

• Dead heat for first – first 2.5 points each, third 1 point; 
• Dead heat for second – first 3 points, second 1.5 points each; or 
• Dead heat for third – first 3 points, second 2 points, third 0.5 points each.

If the highest points scorer is suspended for breaching AR 131 and/or 132 as the result of any ride during the race meeting, then the prize will be awarded to the second highest points scorer and so on until such time as the best and fairest jockey is determined.

In the case of a tie the cash prize will be shared equally by those eligible riders on the highest number of points and a countback will not be conducted.