Viva Via: Champion mare wins back-to-back Cox Plates before punters tear up the track

Two dairy farmers’ sons from New Zealand and a billionaire Chinese coal miner have combined to win the $6 million Cox Plate in one of the greatest finishes in the race’s history, before punters ran onto the famous Moonee Valley turf and literally tore up the track.

The historic Valley course is earmarked for demolition before undergoing a $220 million facelift, which involves rebuilding the entire venue from the ground up.

Before fans spilled onto the track to souvenir patches of grass and pieces of the running rail, champion jockey James McDonald had to squeeze every inch of courage out of mare Via Sistina’s famed staying prowess to hold off stablemate Buckaroo by a nose to win the country’s premier weight-for-age event for the second year running.

“It was a sensational feeling ... her incredible will to win shone through there. She is a champion racehorse,” McDonald said. “I am so proud of her. She deserved to be [spoken of] in the same breath as Sunline and those sorts of horses with two Cox Plates.”

The jockey aboard Buckaroo spoke with disbelief. “I just couldn’t get there,” Mark Zahra told connections after parking his horse in the runners-up stall.

It felt as if every member of the packed Moonee Valley grandstand lifted Via Sistina over the line with a roar equal to any that has reverberated around the famous amphitheatre course.

Emotional trainer Chris Waller fought back tears as he welcomed the victorious McDonald and his champion mare to the winner’s stall after famous 2040-metre race.

The pair embraced in a tight hug after a beaming “J-Mac” slid from the saddle. Then Waller gently patted the mare.

It was the trainer’s sixth Cox Plate win across 11 years, including four by Winx and now two by Via Sistina. For McDonald, it was his fourth consecutive triumph in the race.

Both Waller and McDonald grew up milking cows for their parents in different parts of New Zealand before falling into the lure of racing - Waller rising to become Australia’s best trainer, and McDonald the country’s supreme jockey.

They did it together for Yulong Stud, a racing behemoth built up across the past 10 years by Chinese businessman Yuesheng Zhang, a man who started his humble working life as a taxi driver before finding wealth in coal mining.

“She really had to find every possible reserve,” Waller said.

“I know she hasn’t won her last two runs, but all the data suggests that she’s flying. And once they set those benchmarks, providing the horse is healthy and well, you know, they’re going to get somewhere close to it. And that’s what we knew this week.

In many respects, it wasn’t the mantra of 12 months ago, when Via Sistina threw McDonald during a mid-week gallop, but they had re-engineered the phrase, “no need to panic”.

“Don’t change anything. Don’t think about anything. Let the horse do the talking,” Waller said.

McDonald described the race as a proper Cox Plate with the thrilling finish a fitting way for the final race before the course is reconfigured.

“It’s going to be sad next year [away from Moonee Valley] but in saying that the Cox Plate is still on and it is going to be run and won. I just hope I’m on as good a mare as I was today to ride in the race next year,” he said.

“Just so many sentimental things. Last Valley under this circumference, four-in-a-row, three champion racehorses. God, I’m blessed. I’m so lucky.

“I love this place, I’m blessed to ride champion racehorses, blessed to be a part of a champion stable, and she was trained to the minute.”

Buckaroo is also trained by Waller, with third-placed Treasurethe Moment another Yulong mare.

There was no complaining or need for excuses from Zahra. He knew it had taken a champion to beat him.

He told connections that every time his horse put his nose in front of Via Sistina he saw her lift.

McDonald’s four wins have come on Anamoe (2022), Romantic Warrior (2023) and Via Sistina (2024-2025).

He was also hugged by fellow four-time Cox Plate winning jockey Glen Boss who roared with excitement. “I told you, I told you you were going to win four,” Boss shouted.

Waller and McDonald have now won 49 group 1s together as trainer-jockey combination. But sometimes the champion pairing don’t get it right; like the hilarious post-race moment race when they were unable to pop a stubborn cork from a massive bottle of champagne.

Disappointed jockey Blake Shinn was at a loss to explain why second favourite Antino had tailed off seventh lengths last in the field of eight.

“That was disappointing, that’s not the Antino we’re accustomed [to] knowing,” Shinn said. “He didn’t want to track up like he usually does and he just didn’t chase from the 500, so I’m sure there’s something not right with the horse and that’s why he performed the way he did.”

Waller’s third runner Aeliana finished sixth, but it was a ride that Hong Kong-based jockey Hugh Bowman would rather forget. After poking along the rail, he could not find a gap and get a clear run.

Racegoers flooded onto the track after the last race to stride across the history-making turf. The track looked tired and chopped up, but the crowd was alive.

Tractors, bulldozers and wrecking balls will rumble in across the coming weeks to raze Moonee Valley to the ground.

Not that there will be a lot of work left to do on the demolition given punters tore up chunks of turf and others ripped apart the running rails to take home as souvenirs. It was mayhem.

Earlier, Observer confirmed it will start favourite in the VRC Derby after an all-the-way win in the 2040-metre Drummond Golf Vase.

The three-year-old allowed the field to stack up at the corner before kicking clear as the field turned for home.

Observer will have no problems running out the Derby distance of 2500 metres with the colt now having two wins and three placings from six starts.

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