What is it about the Valley? How is it that a track that is much maligned by so many in racing, can become such a much anticipated focus for the sport for one day each spring?
Personally, I hate betting at the joint. It can be an incredibly biased surface, and there are some that horses just will not perform there and there are some jockeys who don’t either. A track that can bring out the worst in the hoops who feel they need to expose their horses way before acceptances in case the race is gone. And it brings out the worst in punters too, a track where you continually fall into horses that you know deep down can’t win because of the bias but you try them anyway.
But, although we may not readily admit it, we still love the joint. And it is because of one race, the W S Cox Plate.
Cattle farmer Richard Feehan leased some of his farm land to William Samuel Cox in 1882 to develop into a race track. Cox had previously operated a successful racetrack at Kensington where, somewhat unnecessarily, he was at pains to ensure the racing was honest, not exactly consistent with the times. With that good reputation, as well as always offering decent prizemoney, he ran the meeting on the Saturday before the Derby.
Just over a year later, The Argus wrote “Mr. W.S.Cox had a beautifully fine afternoon on his pleasantly situated racecourse on the banks of the Moonee Ponds Valley on Monday September 17th 1883.…. by the time all the arrangements are carried out, this will be a most complete little racecourse”. That first meeting was a six race card and the very first race run at the Valley was the Maiden Plate over six furlongs for 30 sovereigns. Eveline and Pyrette fought out a sterling finish. The judge couldn’t split them and a dead heat was declared. My man tells me that only three leaders won that day and that included Mr A Sullivan’s gelding Squire, who was the only runner to contest the two mile Steeplechase. Sullivan happily copped the 60 sovereign winners purse.
Now, 142 years later, when we think of Moonee Valley we think only of one race, the Cox Plate. It has an honour roll like no other race in Australia has or will ever have. Do yourself a favour and look up the list of winners. It is breathtaking.
And when someone asks you, “hey, what’s the greatest race you’ve ever seen?” Invariably it was a Cox Plate. You simply cannot bottle what that tracks offers the spectator. The grandstand that seems to hang over the track and for those watching the race on the lawn, it feels like they can lean over the rail and touch the horses. You honestly believe that the jockey on the horses you’re on can hear your urging.
At this track, and maybe at no other track in the world, you feel part of the race itself.
Will I be sorry to see it go? Mixed emotions. I desperately hope that somehow they can recreate this intangible atmosphere at the new track but if they need help blowing the joint up, I’ll be there first thing Monday morning with a stick of dynamite.
And for the record, as long as the favourite Via Sistina doesn’t appear on the front page of the paper with a half starved model, I reckon she’s a fair dinkum moral. But if she does, treat her as a scratching.
