As Fred Astaire famously said on the set of Top Hat in 1935 “I’ve seen some big dances in my time, but the 2017 Cox Plate will be a bloody corker”.
Yes, the big dance is here with Winx attempting to emulate the immortal Kingston Town by winning a third Cox Plate on the trot. In the 35 years since this feat was achieved – Australia has had 8 Prime Ministers, Forty Winks could have potentially had 7,665 40-hour sales, and approximately 99.96% of the Australian punting population is now broke after Boom Time rolled home in the Caulfield Cup!
Never fear though, as the fleet-footed folk at SportChamps will you have hot-shoe-shuffling in the street this weekend with their $10,000 Cox Plate Weekend Mega Racing Tournament.
The Group 1 Manikato Stakes meeting on Friday Night and the Cox Plate meeting on Saturday provides us with a double header that would rival the time/s Charlie Sheen took two Perfect 10 models home from the Playboy Mansion.
While you’re at it, throw your hat in the ring for our $1 Cox Plate Racing Tournament. Even Fred Hollows has treated people that could see this is a cracking way to spend a buck!
MANIKATO STAKES
Vega Magic is top pick here after Craig Williams channelled his inner Captain Cook and attempted to circumnavigate the outside rail at Randwick. This was a move that saw significant others in households all over Australia reporting an unprecedented number of broken TV remotes by those that put their hard-earned on him in the Everest. In Her Time was stiff to miss a run in the Everest and is a massive show to knock off the favourite here. She’s drawn to get a perfect run just off the speed and was as stubborn as an interview with Ange Postecoglou last start. English is the value runner, not having much luck in the Everest and peaks third up here whilst Super Cash was super indeed in the Schillaci and can throw a cat amongst the pigeons here.
COX PLATE
Without going to the Bill Shorten level of sycophancy here, Winx is the best racehorse we’ve ever seen on our shores and will cement herself as such here on Saturday. She’ll win with a leg in the air and the Moonee Valley crowd will erupt in a similar fashion to Chris Waller’s tearducts (Chris is $1.30 in some fun bookies markets to cry post-race!). Darren Weir has taken the Buzz Aldrin ‘Second comes right after first’ approach with stablemates Gailo Chop and Humidor and can take home the $440,000 prizemoney for 2nd place whilst Royal Symphony can run a drum with the featherweight of 49kg.
HER DAY – Surely!
Race 5 @ Moonee Valley Saturday – Oregon’s Day must have given her trainer Mick Price visions of the afterlife in recent starts and has drawn wide again but with any luck just wins. Throw her in a running double with the mighty Big Duke and Robert’s your mother’s brother!
Punt Responsibly Champs!
