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Moonee Valley, Melbourne
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Cox Plate: Date, venue, runners, history & more

The Cox Plate is one of Australia's most coveted racing prizes, with the Moonee Valley Group 1 now having more than a century of history behind it.

The race is run over a mile-and-a-quarter (1200m) and is open to horses aged three and up and regularly attracts the best horses from Australia, New Zealand and further afield to Moonee Valley.

Horse Racing

Cox Plate date

The latest running of the Cox Plate will take place on Saturday 25th October, 2025.

Cox Plate venue

The Cox Plate is staged at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Moonee Ponds, some 7km north-west of Melbourne, Victoria.

The Valley, as it is widely known, was first established in 1883 by William S Cox, after whom the Cox Plate is named.

It is a family-friendly and inclusive venue that provides up to 25 racedays every year, with the Cox Plate the centrepiece.

The Valley is also famed for racing under the Friday Night Lights on the floodlit turf track.

Cox Plate history

The Cox Plate sits alongside the Melbourne Cup as one of Australia's racing jewels.

Named in honour of Moonee Valley racecourse founder William S Cox, the race was first run in 1922 and won by six-year-old English-import Violoncello at odds of 2/1.

All past winners have etched their names on the WS Cox Plate Wall of Champions that now take pride of place in the Octagonal Lounge at the racecourse.

The Cox Plate is one of the world's richest weight-for-age races and once more is expected to carry prize money of at least $5m in 2024.

Cox Plate most successful trainer

The late T J Smith holds the record with seven Cox Plate wins, scoring with Redcraze (1957), Tulloch (1959), Gunsynd (1972), Kingston Town (1980, 1981 & 1982) and Red Anchor (1984).

Closest to him on the list is Bart Cummings, whose five wins included back-to-back renewals for So You Think in 2008 and 2009, while Chris Waller won four in a row with Winx from 2015 onwards.

Cox Plate most successful jockey

Darby Munro won the Cox Plate five times in his career, saluting on Rogilla (1933), Young Idea (1937), Mosaic (1939), Beau Vite (1941) and Hydrogen (1952).

Hugh Bowman is his closest modern day pursuer, having steered Winx to her four wins from 2015-2018, while Brent Thomson enjoyed four Cox Plate wins in five years from 1975-1979 on four different winners.

Cox Plate famous winners

Winx is the undoubted Queen of Australian racing and she won the Cox Plate in four straight years from 2015-2018 for trainer Chris Waller and rider Hugh Bowman, becoming the darling of the racing public along the way.

She won 37 of her 43 career starts, including an unbeaten sequence of 33 and a world record of 25 on the trot at Group 1 level.

Kingston Town won three in a row from 1980 for legendary trainer T J Smith, while repeat winners at The Valley since then have included Sunline (1999 & 2000), Northerly (2001 & 2002), Fields Of Omagh (2003 & 2006) and So You Think (2009 & 2010) and, of course, the Queen of the Valley, Winx.

All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.

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