Last year James McDonald stood in the irons approaching the line in the Gr.1 Cox Plate as his mount Via Sistina (IRE) (Fastnet Rock) surged to an astonishing eighth-length victory. This year, the Moonee Valley crowd had their hearts in their mouths as the returning champion rounded the corner out wide, fighting to get past Nepotism (Brutal {NZ}) and Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) to defend her crown. But it wouldn’t be a fitting swan song for the Valley before its reconstruction without that height of drama.
For fleeting seconds as the pack straightened, it appeared that fellow Yulong-owned Treasurethe Moment might hang on to her lead before Yulong’s mightier mare clawed her way to the front – only to be challenged by stablemate Buckaroo (GB) (Fastnet Rock). The pair duelled over the Plate’s closing furlong and McDonald was afforded no early moment of celebration until Via Sistina thrust her head in front as they crossed the line.
It was a fourth-straight win in the race for McDonald, who steered Anamoe and Romantic Warrior (IRE) (Acclamation {GB}) to victory in the years preceding his partnership with Via Sistina, and a sixth win in the race for trainer Chris Waller. The first four wins, of course, came courtesy of Winx (Street Cry {IRE}).
“I’m blessed to ride champion racehorses, blessed to be a part of a champion stable, and she was trained to the minute,” McDonald said. “It was a sensational feeling. It was funny because she began well, I thought, ‘this is beautiful’.
“I thought I was in a great spot. Zac Lloyd (on Neopitism) was jostling for a position. (We) came back, she raced a little bit keen for a bit, but her incredible will to win shone through there and she’s a champion racehorse.
“I’m so proud of her. She deserved to be in the same breath as Sunline and those sorts of horses with two Cox Plates. You know what? I’m just rapt that it was a proper-run Cox Plate. That’s what Cox Plates are all about. The best horse shone through and she deserves all she gets.”
When asked about the pressure he felt returning to defeat Via Sistina’s crown, McDonald could only draw a comparison to what Hugh Bowman must have felt returning year after year with Winx, saying, “how did Hugh do it?”
Waller is of course no stranger to pressure, and while he must have felt it, he expressed he had always had such great confidence in his current champion.
“I know she hasn’t won her last two runs, but all the data suggests 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,” he said.
“There’s been a few of those ‘don’t panic, don’t change anything, don’t think about anything’ (moments). Let the horses do the talking. She had a lovely run. Attrition, I thought, was the winner at the 200 (metre mark). She had to dig deep. I know she can and she did.”
Via Sistina is the standout child of her unraced dam Nigh, who is a half-sister to Britain’s Champion 3YO Sprinter Kingsgate Native (IRE) (Mujadil {USA}). Nigh produced a colt by Too Darn Hot (GB) in 2024 as her most recent documented foal.
Written for TTRAusNZ
