The race where Legends are Made

October 23, 2011

Yesterday at Moonee Valley they ran a little race called the WS Cox Plate. It's not a terribly important race. It's only normally won by the very best horse racing in the country at the time it is held in late October. There are the odd exceptions to this rule, when a horse that you can't say is an outstanding champion wins it. Ok, so I'm being a little bit tongue in cheek. To me, the Cox Plate is the be all and the end all of Australian Racing, the pinnacle of the turf calendar. And because of this, the purist in me can at times feel slightly disappointed when a horse who is perhaps not of the calibre of a Kingston Town, Sunline, So You Think, Northerly, Phar Lap or Tulloch walks away with their name against the trophy. Having said that, you often cannot tell what a horse will go on to achieve at the time you might take a photograph of them winning a race. For example, I first photographed Sunline winning the Furious Stakes, and on the day I had no idea as to the heights this great champion would scale. It was the same with Black Caviar to begin with, even though you might have an inkling that they might go on to greatness.

So in fairness to the game and extremely consistent mare Pinker Pinker, who prevailed in the 2011 WS Cox Plate yesterday, perhaps she will now go on to great things. Yesterday was her first Group 1 win, although she's had a couple of G1 placings in the AJC Oaks and the Epsom Handicap, and her 6th career win. It's not the record of Sunline or So You Think, but she was the best on the day and perhaps it is me still feeling sad about the fact that it would have been nice to have had Black Caviar going for her 15th victory and So You Think trying to emulate my hero Kingston Town in the Cox Plate. Having said that, the wonderful Pony that is Black Caviar makes up for any other disappointment you might otherwise be feeling and I should be seeing her again when I return to Melbourne next week when Dan and I set out on the highway for Melbourne Cup Week.

The race was drama packed. The MVRC decided last year to run the Cox Plate at 5.35pm, which is late, and problematic when it comes to light. Running the race that late means the light is weaker and also that if the sun is out that a huge shadow is cast across the last 50 odd metres of the racetrack. We avoided the shadow because of it was an overcast day, however the closer we came to racetime, the closer moved an enormous thunderstorm. In the press room we were all watching the radar, and consulting each other as to when we thought it would hit. With growing pessimism the raincoats and camera covers came out, and when we all worked out to photograph this great race, the light was fading by the minute, and the clouds grew darker and darker. I ended up having to push the D3s out to ISO 2500 and was struggling to maintain a sufficient shutter speed. We all kept looking skywards in our anxiety that the race be run before the rain that we knew to be approaching hit in earnest. Amazingly, after beginning to rain just as the field came out onto the track, the rain held off for those next crucial 20 minutes. Of course by the time the presentation was being held, it was well and truly pouring.