The Ladbrokes Cox Plate is a Group 1 Weight-For-Age race for horses aged three years and above, run over The Valley’s famous 2040m with a total prizemoney pool of $5 million. Known as the Weight-For-Age Championship of Australasia, the Cox Plate not only brings together the best middle-distance horses in Australia and New Zealand but more recently it has attracted the best middle-distance horses in the world.

Over the years the Cox Plate has had an extraordinary ability to always produce and showcase the Greatest horses in Australian Racing History, and you will not find an undeserving winner of the race over the 100 Runnings.

Phar Lap, Tulloch, Kingston Town, Octagonal, Makybe Diva, So You Think and Winx are just some of the Champions of the Australian Turf who have won our great race, and every winner in the race’s history can be found on the wall in the Octagonal Lounge at The Valley.

The best horses in the world going pound for pound in front of the amphitheater that The Valley provides makes the Cox Plate a spectacle like no other, and the deafening roar of the crowd when the gates crash back is worth coming to experience in itself.

The pinnacle of Australian Weight-For-Age Racing, there is no doubt it is "the Greatest two minutes in Sport.”

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?” 

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)

Brent Thomson Jockey Challenge 2020 Winner:
Jamie Kah, 12 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. 

Incorporated as part of Racing Victoria’s ‘Star of the Saddle’ series in 2019, the leading ride across the Ladbrokes Cox Plate Carnival will win a $100,000 cash prize.

Over the years the Cox Plate has had an extraordinary ability to always produce and showcase the Greatest horses in Australian Racing History, and you will not find an undeserving winner of the race over the 100 Runnings.

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 2019 Ladbrokes Cox Plate Carnival with eight races on Friday night 25 October 2019 and ten races on Saturday 26 October 2019.

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.