October 19, 1999. Copyright, 1999, Graphic News. All rights reserved

IRISH CHALLENGER UP AGAINST STRONG HOME FIELD FOR COX PLATE
By Midge Todhunter

LONDON, October 19, Graphic News:  WHEN TOP Irish trainer Dermot Weld flew his talented stayer Vintage Crop half way round the Earth to win the 1993 Melbourne Cup, he set a precedent which was to herald the World Racing Championship now being staged across the globe.
The Group 1 Cox Plate Ð the richest weight-for-age race in the southern hemisphere Ð will be run at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, Australia, on October 23 as the fifth leg of the Emirates World Series.
Since its inception in 1922 the Cox Plate has been won by almost all the champions Australia has produced, from Phar Lap in 1930 and 1931 to the great Might and Power in 1998. The race covers a complete circuit of the one mile, two furlongs (2,000m) flat turf course of Moonee Valley where there is a short home straight of just over one furlong (200m).
Weld has sent Group 3 winner Make No Mistake, which arrived in Australia on September 28 and has been stabled in the Quarantine Centre since, to contest the race. But the field looks sure to be headed by the Australian-trained 5/1 joint favourite, Tie The Knot, a recent Group 3 winner at the course. Also joint 5/1 favourite is the top-rated Intergaze, winner of the Group 1 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield on September 19. Another Group 1 scorer in the line-up from Australia is Testa Rossa, which won the Vic Health Cup at Caulfield in September.
Known in Australia as Òthe race where legends are madeÓ, the Cox Plate carries a total purse of AUS$1,696,000 (U.S.$1,038,878).
/ENDS