A walk down Cox Stakes lane
West Australian Racing
PerthTurfTalk
3,054 posts
Run at Group 2 level, the C. B. Cox Stakes is a time honoured event in the Western Australian thoroughbred calendar and dates back to 1914, when Radnor won the inaugural running of the race.
The race has certainly had its share of famous winners over the years and in recent times – particularly if you call the last 35 years “recent” – which, believe me, is not hard to do when you are as ancient as I am. A check back to that bygone era reveals the name Piping Lane. He won the race way back in 1972, defeating the Queenslander Knee High. Piping Lane had won the Melbourne Cup the same year, defeating Magnifique and the horse from the back blocks of Queensland that they wrote a song entitled “the Goondiwindi Grey” about – Gunsynd.
In 1974, just two years after Piping Lane won the Melbourne Cup, the smart New Zealander Battle Heights won the Cox Stakes. He defeated Runyon and Gay Master. Earlier that same year Battle Heights had won the Sydney Cup and in the following year, 1975, Gay Master, his trainer Tommy Hughes and the late owner Bill Stanley were victorious in the Sydney Cup.
Four years later, in 1978, Arwon won the Melbourne Cup, but he had to be content with second in Perth, because he couldn’t beat a horse called Meliador home in the C. B. Cox Stakes - a bit over a month after his Melbourne Cup victory.
1982 saw a crackerjack race when Nicholas John, the horse that landed a big plunge when brilliantly winning The Metropolitan in Sydney earlier that year, trekked to Perth and won the Cox Stakes beating the top class mare Bianco Lady.
Tawriffic won the Melbourne Cup in 1989 and just over a month later he won the Cox Stakes.
In 1995 the Cox Stakes winner was the horse that no one wanted to walk out the front gate with from a Gold Coast Magic Millions yearling sale. Auctioneers worked hard to get just $700 for the son of Ksar Royal and the broodmare Gentle Pal. Growing up to be named Dark Ksar he won 13 of his 81 starts and earned $1,065,453 in prizemoney. His career highlight was his victory in the Group 1 WFA Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill in Sydney on 12/3/94 and some 21 months later he went to Perth to win the Cox Stakes which was run two days before Christmas Day in 1995. The name Dark Ksar is often bought up to show how all the so called “good judges” all stood around like lost causes and missed the good horse that went “for well under a grand” in monetary parlance. The man who put the polish on him for his Perth assignment, Peter Hayes, is sadly no longer in our midst, having being killed in a light plane crash in March 2001.
1998 saw Rogan Josh run second in the C. B. Cox Stakes to a horse with an interesting name - Jack Daniels. The following year, 1999, Rogan Josh was transferred to the stables of Bart Cummings and together they won the Melbourne Cup for his school teacher owner.
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Comments
Great article mate.
It's also worth mentioning that only two horses have done the Melbourne Cup / Cox Stakes double.
Piping Lane in 1972 and Tawrrific in 1989.
Cheers,
PC.