On a weekend where not a lot went to script for the Moonee Valley Racing Club, Saturday’s Cox Plate went exactly as James McDonald and James Cummings planned it for race favourite Anamoe.
Returning to the scene of his defeat 12 months ago as a three-year-old, Anamoe carried the weight of the Valley crowd into the straight, and bravely held off I’m Thunderstruck and import El Bodegon in an epic edition of the weight-for-age championship.
Perhaps not since Winx’s fourth Cox Plate in 2019 has a favourite carried more expectation into the Cox Plate, but from the moment the barriers opened to the roar of the crowd, Anamoe looked destined to victory, and as he crossed the line, punters applauded and cheered Australia’s champion middle distance horse.
Anamoe and jockey James McDonald won the Cox Plate on Saturday.Credit:Racing Photos
Anamoe’s CV is now close to faultless. Placings in the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper as a two-year-old highlighted his maturity as a juvenile, while his three-year-old spring was a coming of age, as he fell desperately short in the Golden Rose and Cox Plate, but split those races with a clinical Caulfield Guineas win.
His win in this year’s Rosehill Guineas in the autumn was out of this world, but it will now be his spring of 2022 that racing enthusiasts will remember for a long time. He did what he had to do to claim the Winx Stakes, George Main and Might And Power Stakes en route to Saturday’s main event, but Cummings would have given up all three of those wins to claim his first Cox Plate – a race his grandfather Bart won five times.
If there’s any symmetry, it’s with Anamoe and Bart’s two-time winner So You Think, who claimed back-to-back Cox Plates as a three and four-year-old in 2009 and 2010. Arguably, had it not been for interference in last year’s edition, Anamoe would also have two Cox Plates.
Wild weather threatened to curtain the race favourite’s chances, but the afternoon proved glorious as the track dried out following its Friday night and Saturday morning deluge. The track started a heavy 8, but raced a bit better than that, with McDonald getting an early taste for the circuit on Francesco Guardi in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup.
McDonald, without doubt Australia’s premier jockey, didn’t make one wrong move on the horse. He flopped straight into fourth, as Alligator Blood sat outside Zaaki in an even-tempo race, with Profondo close by on the fence.
Trainer James Cummings and jockey James McDonald with Anamoe after his win in the Might And Power Stakes.Credit:Getty Images
El Bodegon, the fancied import on his Australian debut, ended up two pairs behind Anamoe after being slow away, while I’m Thunderstruck was forced to settle at the end of the field from his wide barrier draw.
It wasn’t until the 600-metre mark when the race pace really ramped up. McDonald took luck out of the equation, peeling Anamoe out to let him build into the run, and as they turned into the straight, he rounded up Alligator Blood and hit the front, with I’m Thunderstruck and El Bodegon closing late for the placings without really challenging the result.
Like Cummings, the Cox Plate win was McDonald’s first – his 72nd at group 1 level – and significantly adds to the Kiwi-born hoop’s achievements, which include the Melbourne Cup and Everest in 2021, and the Caulfield Guineas earlier this month.
For Anamoe, a Victorian farewell beckons on the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, before a likely trip overseas next year to underline his stud credentials.
