A Champion

The WS Cox Plate is a Group 1 event and is considered the weight-for-age championship of Australasia and carries Australia’s richest weight-for-age prize of $3 million and almost 10 times that amount is bet on the race. I can guarantee you that 3 million punters will be in tears if Shoot Out wins. Only 14 horses are able to run in the Cox Plate, with fields generally smaller than the maximum of 14. All the horses have group one form and you can line up their betting from races like the Turnbull or Memsie.

This year all the hero money will be on Shoot Out after the tragic news that the jockey Stathi katsidis was found dead in his home two days ago. I hate to say it but it would be fabulious if Corey Brown could win it for Stathi, just like Damien Oliver won the Melbourne Cup for his brother who was killed in a race fall only weeks before the cup.

I hope and pray that Shoot Out beats So You Think by a nose, but I don’t think it is going to happen. The horse has dominated horseracing betting and at odds of $1.50 is the shortest priced favorite in decades to run in the Cox Plate. Who knows the public may be able to get Shoot Out up to win and there will be one happy jockey looking down thinking, ” I should have taken those odds!” Zipping may also run into a place as the horse has no weaknesses, which Shocking found out two weeks ago.

What ever the result it will be a sad Cox Plate in 2010 and I think the winner will be humbled by the passing of one of Queensland’s finest. RIP.