The fastest-run Cox Plate has delivered a winning margin to match one of the greatest horses to win the race as Via Sistina brought her best European form in a victory befitting Australian racing’s most prestigious stage.
One of the more expensive racemares publicly traded in the international bloodstock world, Via Sistina shrugged aside a trackwork mishap to claim the crown of Australia’s foremost horse with an eight-length win at Moonee Valley.
It was a weight-for-age domination equal to Winx's win in the second of her four Cox Plate victories in 2016.
And it came in a time that smashed Winx’s race and track record by almost two seconds as Via Sistina clocked 2min01.70secs.
Adding another layer to a race that never fails to deliver, Via Sistina gave champion James McDonald his 100th Group 1 winner.
At 32, McDonald is the youngest of an exclusive club that includes Damien Oliver, George Moore, Hugh Bowman and Jimmy Cassidy to reach the milestone.
McDonald also made it three Cox Plate wins in a row - on three different horses.
Trainer Chris Waller celebrated his fifth win, six years after his horse-of-a-lifetime Winx departed the Moonee Valley amphitheatre for the final time.
Aptly, McDonald couldn’t help but compare Via Sistina to one of the modern-day greats.
“It's hard to believe isn't it? She won like Winx and that's not a throwaway line,” he said.
But McDonald could have easily had a sorry tale after a lead-up that went off script when he parted ways with Via Sistina in a morning gallop during the week.
Via Sistina galloped three laps of the Moonee Valley circuit and McDonald was certain he would have to wait another week before riding his 100th Group 1 winner.
“I thought our hopes were doomed,” he said.
“I think there was a fantastic picture there when I popped myself up and looked at her and watched her gallop away.
“I think if looks could tell a story .. we were stuffed.”
Waller reconfigured Via Sistina’s week as the champion trainer reverted to what he said was Plan B.
Rival stables could only wonder what Plan A would have brought as Via Sistina sailed past Prognosis to leave the Japanese horse holding down second with Godolphin colt Broadsiding running on with his light weight to beat Mr Brightside into the minor placing.
Via Sistina’s win confirmed Yuesheng Zhang’s Yulong thoroughbred empire rightly belongs as a major player in Australia after a worldwide spending spree in recent years.
She was purchased for $5.2 million out of last year’s Tattersalls Mares Sale in England and the Cox Plate victory marked her fourth Group 1 success in Australia.
Via Sistina wins the 2024 Cox Plate. (Replay: YouTube)
“It's great for Mr Zhang and his family. It's no secret how much money Mr Zhang puts into this business,” Yulong general manager Vin Cox said.
“To win a race like this is a testament to his sustained and serious investment in this business.
“When you buy these horses … not in your wildest dreams do you think you're going to win a Cox Plate.”
In any other era of Australian racing, trainer Anthony Cummings might have been tempted to run his Spring Champion Stakes winner El Castello in a Cox Plate.
A fixture of the Sydney spring since 1978, the Spring Champion has often been a springboard to the weight-for-age race.
Savabeel completed the double in 2004 and more recently - and notably - the first filly to claim the Spring Champion, the 2016 winner Yankee Rose, chased home two heavyweights in Winx and Hartnell.
Even El Castello’s sire Castelvecchio was given his chance after finishing second five years ago before beating home all but the Japanese star Lys Gracieux at Moonee Valley.
Given Via Sistina’s domination of the Cox Plate, it probably worked out for the best, but Cummings has never been afraid of an aggressive approach with the placement of his horses.
“It's hard to believe isn't it? She won like Winx and that's not a throwaway line,” James McDonald describing Via Sistina's Cox Plate win
The Spring Champion-Cox Plate clash is the latest example of how disjointed the programming of key races has become since Racing NSW overhauled the Sydney spring.
Nevertheless, there is a window of opportunity that Cummings is almost certain to capitalise on as he points El Castell0 towards Flemington for the Victoria Derby.
“Standing here today, the decision is yes (to a Derby start),” Cummings said.
“But we've got to get him home, make sure that he's OK and tick a few boxes before we do that. But, I mean, that was the plan.
“The preparation was set up so that today's race would give him the step to go to the Derby so it looks like that'll happen.”
With an intimate knowledge of El Castello’s family, Cummings paid $220,000 for colt at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
El Castello keeps on winning and is now a Group 1 winner! He takes the Spring Champion Stakes for @ACummingsRacing under @JoshuaParr8 🏆 pic.twitter.com/2qEtjFLnFa
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) October 26, 2024
Sold as part of New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud draft, El Castello is out of a Fastnet Rock half-sister to Cummings’s Victoria Derby winner Fiveandahalfstar.
The connection will resonate even further with the trainer as he works on a restricted timetable to conjure up another Derby success.
Cummings trained Fiveandahalfstar to win the 2012 edition - sending the horse south for a seven-day back-up after a benchmark win in Sydney.
El Castello will arrive in Melbourne with much stonger form, confirmed by his Derby favouritism over Broadsiding and Saturday’s Vase winner Red Aces.
As well as emulating his grandsire Dundeel as a Spring Champion hero, the colt also elevated Castelvecchio to the ranks of a Group 1-winning sire in a finish stamped with an Arrowfield Stud influence.
Arrowfield stands Castelvecchio alongside Dundeel, the sire of Henlein who tried his hardest to go with El Castello before finishing second.
