Zipping for the Cox Plate
The two maxims I was taught in regards the Cox Plate when I first hit the bookmaking side of the ledger that have stuck with me to this day are that the race is not one for favourites and it is not one for younger horses.
Going back to Surfers Paradise’s win in 1991, only four favourites have won Australia’s weight-for-age championship. They were Might and Power, Northerly, Sunline and Makybe Diva, arguably Australia’s four greatest thoroughbreds of the last fifteen years. Sunline and Northerly won as favourites chasing their second straight Cox Plate as a five-year-old and six-year-old respectively. Beaten favourites include wonderful gallopers like Lonhro, Filante, Elvstroem, Redoute’s Choice, Shaftesbury Avenue and Naturalism.