The Race where Legends are Made, in the Cauldron that wasn’t a Cauldron

 The call it The Race Where Legends are Made.  It is run at The Valley, or The Cauldron as we like to call it.  Like many things in 2020 this year’s renewal was a sobering and sad reminder of what we lost.  A Cox Plate without crowds. Darryl Braithwaite singing ‘The Horses’ to a handful of people there in a purely working capacity.  As they ran clips of previous winners, filled with cutaways to joyous scenes of the crowd interacting with each famous winner of one of our most prestigious races, I could feel tears prickling at the back of my eyes and I had to walk away.  

The race was won by the imported SIR DRAGONET.  He’s a really nice horse and he gave Bossy another Cox Plate victory and Ciaron Maher and David Eustace their first winner in the race.  We’d photographed the horse in the 2019 Epsom Derby, a moment that felt like a lifetime ago when he swept past me at the 150m to victory. So glad to be there though.   We’d been forced off track at the last moment for the Caulfield Cup which we were shattered about, but Cox Plate day was a good day.  It always is.  Hoping for a more normal raceday experience in 2021.




















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