The best that never won a Cox Plate

It’s Australasia’s weight-for-age championship and has been won by some of the greats of the turf. But not every champion was able to get it done in the Cox Plate.

Betsy’s James Tzaferis takes a look at some of the heroes of the turf that failed on the big stage at The Valley.

Lonhro

Lonhro was a dead set star. He won 26 races and was the dominant force in Australia’s middle distance weight-for-age ranks for several seasons. But he just couldn’t get it done at The Valley. He won G1 races at Caulfield and Flemington either side of his sixth to Northerly in the 2002 Cox Plate. In 2003, he started the $1.60 favourite in the Cox Plate off five straight wins at G1 or G2 level but he could only manage third behind Fields Of Omagh.

Filante

By most measures of a racehorse, Filante won’t go down in history as a champion. He won two Group 1 races during a 25-start career. But in some alternative universe, they might have been talking about him as one of the greats of the modern era. The Jack Denham-trained gelding ran second in two Cox Plates, going down narrowly to Saintly in 1996 before being collared by Dane Ripper up the inside in 1997.

Naturalism

Many declare the 1992 Cox Plate field as the best ever assembled for the race and the horse that started favourite was Naturalism off the back of dominant wins in the Turnbull Stakes, Feehan Stakes and Memsie Stakes. He was traveling deluxe with 800m to run but in a horror piece of racing carnage, he was one of three horses to clips heels and drop his rider, crushing his chances of a famous win. Super Impose went on to eclipse Let’s Elope in a famous finish. Naturalism returned the following year and again started favourite in the Cox Plate but finished just outside the placings.

Whobegotyou

Whobegotyou loved The Valley almost as much as he loved running a minor placing at G1 level. Mark Kavanagh’s pin-up gelding did win a G1 Underwood Stakes but he was placed in seven other G1 races. He was undefeated in four runs at The Valley when he started $2.80 in the 2009 Cox Plate where he ran sixth to So You Think. After winning the Feehan Stakes again the following year, he started an each-way chance in the 2010 Cox Plate, this time running on from the back of the field to finish third, again behind So You Think.

More Joyous

Gai Waterhouse’s champion mare won eight Group 1 races but she didn’t seem to bring her best to The Valley when she tackled the Cox Plate in 2010 and 2012. She led the field in 2010 but was run down by So You Think, while she never looked a winning chance when finishing 11^th behind Ocean Park in 2012.

The 10-time Group 1 winner has had three cracks at the Cox Plate for a seventh in 2022, a narrow second in 2023 and a fourth in 2024. It was his runner-up performance behind Hong Kong hero Romantic Warrior that hurt the most when many, including some of his own connections, thought he’d prevailed in a tight photo finish. He loves the Valley but he just doesn’t love the end of 2040m. In the spring of 2025, Lindsay Park opted to keep him at 1400m and 1600m.