- Via Sistina is favourite to win the Melbourne Cup
- Mare smashed track record previously held by Winx
Record-breaking Cox Plate champion Via Sistina is now the outright favourite tipped to win the Melbourne Cup after completely dominating the field to win by an incredible eight lengths – but there’s no guarantee she’ll feature in the race that stops a nation.
Via Sistina looks primed to take on the iconic 3200m handicap at Flemington on November 5 after smashing Winx’s race record in the 2040m Group 1 feature at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
The Chris Waller-trained seven-year-old mare jumped as third-favourite and won Australasia’s weight-for-age championship by a record eight lengths from pre-race favourite Prognosis.
But connections of Via Sistina – bought by Yulong Investments for $5.5million in December last year – will ‘let the dust settle’ before deciding whether to back her up in next week’s Melbourne Cup or let her rest.
‘There are a lot worse decisions to have to make than this,’ Yulong general manager Vin Cox said.
‘We just want to let the horse settle down and see where we are at, [we’ll] get our feet back on the ground and clear our heads.
Champion jockey James McDonald steered Via Sistina to her stunning Cox Plate victory and on Monday morning was still processing the stunning romp.
‘It’s obviously such a hard race to win, you need a lot of things to go right – I just couldnt believe the style she’s done it in,’ he told RSN Breakfast radio.
‘She’s done it in spectacular fashion.’
Via Sistina had been in serious doubt to start the race after throwing McDonald during trackwork four days earlier.
‘Nothing went right.
‘It was a topsy turvy week, but she’s come out with flying colours and produced the goods on the day.’
McDonald went on to say that Via Sistina looks to have pulled up very well after the Cox Plate and he fancies her chances in the Melbourne Cup, should she race.
‘If she runs in the Melbourne Cup I have no queries… her class will take her a long, long way and I think she will be unbelievably hard to beat.’
Online betting sites opened with Via Sistina as a $51 Melbourne Cup chance, and she was a $21 fancy before the Cox Plate, but her odds were slashed to $5 on Saturday night.
Northern hemisphere raider Jan Brueghel ($7), Waller’s Caulfield Cup runner-up Buckaroo ($8) and Geelong Cup winner Onesmoothoperator ($9) are also among the leading contenders in the market.
If she starts and is successful, Via Sistina would become only the second galloper to claim the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double this century, after legendary mare Makybe Diva (2005).
Three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva is one of just five to have completed the feted double, along with Nightmarch (1929), Phar Lap (1930), Rising Fast (1954) and Saintly (1996).
Yulong paid $5.5 million for Via Sistina last year, but, having now won four Group 1s, she has earned more than $6.7 million in prizemoney with plenty more on the way.
‘She looks cheap now,’ Cox said.
‘Everything looks cheap when they are winning races like that.
‘She’s had four Group 1s and a second … (since coming to Australia), and every race she has (competed in) since she came here has been a Group 1.
‘They don’t give Group 1s away, and for her to keep doing it, that is remarkable.
‘You don’t ever expect to win a race the stature of the race like a Cox Plate in that fashion.
‘I’m so happy for the boss (Mr Zhang) and his family, who put a lot into the game.’
