Greatest Cox Plate Winners of All Time: Top 10 Ranked

Who are the greatest Cox Plate winners of all time? From four-time champion Winx and triple winner Kingston Town to Phar Lap, Sunline and back-to-back heroine Via Sistina, The Sporting Base ranks the top 10 horses to conquer Australasia’s weight-for-age championship.

The W.S. Cox Plate has been the measuring stick for Australasia’s best middle-distance gallopers since Violoncello won the first running in 1922. Run over 2040m at weight-for-age, it takes handicap weights out of the equation and asks a simple question: which horse is the best in the race? This year brings a historic twist. The 106th Cox Plate will be run at Flemington on Saturday, 24 October 2026, the first time the race has been staged away from Moonee Valley, with The Valley closed for a major redevelopment, as Racing Victoria confirmed.

Before the field heads to Flemington, we have ranked the 10 greatest Cox Plate winners in the race’s history. The order is TSB’s opinion. The wins, margins, times and career figures come from official results and reputable reporting.

How we ranked them

Four things mattered most: what each horse did in the Cox Plate itself (number of wins, winning margins and times, and the quality of the horses beaten), its overall career record, its place in racing history, and how dominant it was at weight-for-age level. Multiple wins counted heavily, but a single Plate inside an all-time career could still outrank a dual winner. Comparing eras is never exact. In Phar Lap’s day the race was run over 9½ furlongs, while today’s field runs 2040m, so this is a judgement call rather than a formula.

1. Winx (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

Cox Plate wins: Four (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
Trainer: Chris Waller
Jockey: Hugh Bowman
Career: 43 starts, 37 wins, 25 Group 1 wins

No horse has won the Cox Plate more often. Winx announced herself in 2015, beating Criterion by almost five lengths in a race-record 2:02.98. In 2016 she put eight lengths on Godolphin’s Hartnell, a record winning margin. In 2017 she held off Humidor’s late charge and lowered her own race record to 2:02.94, and in 2018 she beat Benbatl by two lengths to move past Kingston Town as the first four-time winner. That fourth Plate was the 29th win of a streak that eventually reached 33, and she retired in 2019 with 25 Group 1 wins and more than $26 million in prizemoney. Four Plates in four years makes her the clear No.1, and it is a big part of the case for her as the greatest racehorse in Australian history.

2. Kingston Town (1980, 1981, 1982)

Cox Plate wins: Three (1980, 1981, 1982)
Trainer: T.J. Smith
Jockeys: Malcolm Johnston (1980), Ron Quinton (1981), Peter Cook (1982)
Career: 41 starts, 30 wins, 14 Group 1 wins

Kingston Town was the only triple winner until Winx joined him in 2017. He won the 1980 Plate by five lengths under Malcolm Johnston, then got out of a pocket under Ron Quinton to overhaul Lawman in 1981. The 1982 edition produced the most famous moment in the race’s history. With the champion struggling near the turn, broadcaster Bill Collins declared “Kingston Town can’t win”, only for Peter Cook to angle him wide and run down Grosvenor to win by a neck. Racing.com’s Michael Manley ranks it the most memorable Cox Plate of his 40 years at the race. Remarkably, those three Cox Plates were his only wins in Melbourne. He was the first Australian horse to earn $1 million and one of the five inaugural inductees into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

3. Phar Lap (1930, 1931)

Cox Plate wins: Two (1930, 1931)
Trainer: Harry Telford
Jockey: Jim Pike
Career: 51 starts, 37 wins

Australia’s most famous racehorse won back-to-back Cox Plates during the Great Depression, and in 1931 he started at 1-14 ($1.07), which is still the shortest-priced winner in the race’s history. Between those two wins came the 1930 Melbourne Cup, won under 62.7kg (9st 12lb). The New Zealand-bred gelding then won the 1932 Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico, at the time the world’s richest race, before his sudden death in the United States that same year. Eras are impossible to compare precisely, but his dominance of his own era earns him a place on the podium.

4. Sunline (1999, 2000)

Cox Plate wins: Two (1999, 2000)
Trainer: Trevor McKee
Jockey: Greg Childs
Career: 48 starts, 32 wins, 13 Group 1 wins

The New Zealand mare loved to roll along in front, and The Valley suited her perfectly. After winning in 1999, she returned in 2000 and won by seven lengths, equalling Dulcify’s 1979 margin, which was then the race record. Childs said after her death in 2009: “Her greatest achievement was probably winning the Cox Plate the second time around by seven lengths.” Northerly denied her a third straight Plate in 2001, but her record also includes two Doncaster Handicaps and the 2000 Hong Kong Mile, and she was crowned Australian champion racehorse three times (2000 to 2002).

5. Might And Power (1998)

Cox Plate wins: One (1998)
Trainer: Jack Denham
Jockey: Jim Cassidy
Career: 33 starts, 15 wins

Few horses have packed more into one year. In the spring of 1997 Might And Power won the Caulfield Cup by 7½ lengths in track-record time, then held off Doriemus in a photo finish to win the Melbourne Cup. He came back in 1998 and won the Cox Plate in a track record for the new Moonee Valley circuit, about 2.2 seconds faster than Saintly two years earlier, and it was 17 years before another horse ran a faster Cox Plate. He and Rising Fast are the only horses to have won the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, and he was Australian Racehorse of the Year in 1998 and 1999.

6. Northerly (2001, 2002)

Cox Plate wins: Two (2001, 2002)
Trainer: Fred Kersley
Jockeys: Damien Oliver (2001), Patrick Payne (2002)
Career: 37 starts, 19 wins, nine Group 1 wins

Race caller Greg Miles christened him The Fighting Tiger, and the Western Australian gelding lived up to the name. In 2001 he wore down Sunline to stop her bid for a third straight Plate, then survived protests from both the second and third placegetters. A year later he won the Caulfield Cup with Greg Childs aboard, and seven days later, with Childs staying loyal to Sunline, Patrick Payne steered him to a second Cox Plate. That made him the first horse since Tobin Bronze in 1967 to complete the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate double, and he beat Sunline in both of his Plates. Toughness and consistency at the highest level put him just outside the top five.

7. So You Think (2009, 2010)

Cox Plate wins: Two (2009, 2010)
Trainer: Bart Cummings
Jockeys: Glen Boss (2009), Steven Arnold (2010)
Career: 10 Group 1 wins in Australia and Europe

So You Think won the 2009 Cox Plate as a three-year-old at only his fifth start, leading all the way and giving Bart Cummings his fourth win in the race. He defended his title in 2010 under Steven Arnold, ran third in the Melbourne Cup, and was then moved to Aidan O’Brien in Ireland after Coolmore bought into him. In Europe he won two Tattersalls Gold Cups and the 2012 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Ascot. Cummings described him as “perfection on four legs”, and two Cox Plates within his first 10 starts shows how quickly he reached the top.

8. Via Sistina (2024, 2025)

Cox Plate wins: Two (2024, 2025)
Trainer: Chris Waller
Jockey: James McDonald
Career: 12 Group 1 wins

Only days after dumping McDonald during trackwork and completing almost three laps of The Valley riderless, Via Sistina won the 2024 Cox Plate by eight lengths, equalling Winx’s record margin, in a race-record 2:01.07. As racing.com put it, no one has ever gone faster. She returned in 2025 as favourite and edged stablemate Buckaroo by a nose in the last Cox Plate before The Valley’s redevelopment. That made her the first horse since Winx to win the race in consecutive years and the first eight-year-old mare to win it. She added the Champions Stakes at Flemington before being retired in January 2026. Recency did not earn her a higher spot, but a record time, a record-equalling margin and two Plates did earn her a place in the top 10.

9. Tulloch (1960)

Cox Plate wins: One (1960)
Trainer: T.J. Smith
Jockey: Neville Sellwood
Career: 53 starts, 36 wins

Tulloch’s Cox Plate is one of racing’s great comeback stories. As a three-year-old he won the 1957 Caulfield Cup and the AJC Derby, taking two seconds off Phar Lap’s race record in the Derby, before a serious stomach illness kept him off the track for two years. Smith and veterinarian Percy Sykes brought him back from near death, and he won the 1960 Cox Plate as a six-year-old, setting a race record. Smith later named his stables Tulloch Lodge in his honour, and Tulloch was one of the five inaugural inductees into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

10. Makybe Diva (2005)

Cox Plate wins: One (2005)
Trainer: Lee Freedman
Jockey: Glen Boss
Career: 36 starts, 15 wins

Best known for her three straight Melbourne Cups, Makybe Diva proved she was more than a stayer in the 2005 Cox Plate. Settled near the tail of the field, she swept around them on the turn and won by 1¼ lengths from Lotteria, with Fields Of Omagh third. Owner Tony Santic, who had bought Phar Lap’s 1931 Cox Plate, finally had one of his own. Ten days later she won her third Melbourne Cup and was retired within hours. Freedman said after the Plate: “She is definitely the best horse I have ever trained.” Winning Australia’s weight-for-age championship as well as three Cups gives her a CV few in the sport can match.

Honourable mentions

Bonecrusher (1986): won the famous “Race of the Century” after a duel with Our Waverley Star from the 600m.
Rising Fast (1954): with Might And Power, the only horse to have won the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.
Dulcify (1979): won by seven lengths, the race-record margin until Winx in 2016.
Tobin Bronze (1966, 1967): a dual winner who completed the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate double in 1967.
Romantic Warrior (2023): became Hong Kong’s first Cox Plate winner, beating Mr Brightside by a nose.

Looking ahead to the 2026 Cox Plate

The 2026 Cox Plate will be run at Flemington on Saturday, 24 October, and The Valley’s redevelopment is expected to be finished by mid-2027. James McDonald has ridden the past four winners, Anamoe (2022), Romantic Warrior (2023) and Via Sistina (2024 and 2025), and no jockey has ever won five in a row. He has named Aeliana as the horse he hopes can make it five. Chris Waller has six Cox Plates and can draw level with T.J. Smith’s record of seven. The form is taking shape: West Australian Cosmic Crusader won the Turnbull Stakes with Aeliana third and Sir Delius fourth, while Golden Rose winner Warwoven has the Cox Plate on his radar. Follow every contender with TSB’s free Racing Form Guide.

Gamble responsibly.

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