Via Sistina, 2024 wins Cox Plate by eight lengths, beating Japanese raider Prognosis and Broadsiding

Via Sistina won the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley with a dominant performance, completing an incredible comeback after an accident in midweek almost took her out of the race.

Jockey James McDonald rode the Via Sistina from the middle of the pack and made his move to the corner to ride Japanese horse Prognosis before riding away to capture the Australasian weight-for-age championship.

The Chris Waller-trained Via Sistina won by an equal record of eight lengths, from Prognosis and Broadsiding.

The seven-year-old mare broke the Winx’s Moonee Valley track record in the 2017 Cox Plate, stopping the clock in 2 minutes 1.07 seconds – 1.87 seconds faster than the four-time Cox Plate winner.

An emotional Waller spoke after the race, revealing his concerns when the Via Sistina almost came crashing down during track work on Tuesday.

The horse was almost out of the race when McDonald hit the ground hard, forcing the horse to run two or three circuits of the track without a driver.

But after being checked by vets, Via Sistina was cleared to race and achieved one of the great Cox Plate victories.

The Ciaron Maher-trained Pride of Jenni was expected to take the lead from the start, but instead Royal Patronage was the early pacesetter, before the former took the lead down the straight.

Race favorite Prognosis raced to the front to get right behind Pride of Jenni and the pair looked ready to do battle, but McDonald made his move to make it a three-way approaching the corner, before Pride of Jenni started to fade.

The forecast was at the front, but not as long as the Via Sistina steamed past to hit the front. The straight at the finish in Moonee Valley is only 173 meters long, but in that short distance the Via Sistina turned the race into a procession, with McDonald able to stand in the irons well before the line and wave to the crowd.

“The truth is, when she (Via Sistina) got up and James got up, I didn’t care,” he told Channel Seven.

“If she didn’t get the Cox Plate, who cares? She’s still alive and James is still alive.’

The win gave McDonald his third straight win in the major race – after rides on Romantic Warrior and Anamoe in the past two years – and also marked the Australian jockey’s 100th victory in Group 1.

“I rode so smoothly in the first half,” McDonald told Channel Seven after the race.

“And I thought I’d just take it out, keep it smooth, get into it and she loved it. She won like Winx. She blended in and then, yeah, just a phenomenal performance.”

McDonald admitted he thought the trackwork incident was the end of the matter for Via Sistina as far as the Cox Plate was concerned.

“I thought our hopes were doomed,” he said.

“I think there was a fantastic photo when I turned up and looked and saw her galloping away, and I think if looks could tell a story, we were stuffed.”