Cox Plate Day Recap – Morphettville
Footy trips from Melbourne, milestone celebrations in the Corporate Boxes, and a stellar crowd trackside made for a great day of racing for Cox Plate Day at Morphettville.
Highly fancied gelding, Give Some Lip gave the Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea stable an early winner as he showed a great turn of speed to cover the field and score under Ben Price.
Will Clarken spoke of the calibre of the three-year-old post-race.
“He’s a really nice horse and probably the pick of our three-year olds.
“He will have a month in the paddock now and we will look to our Autumn Carnival with him,” he said.
After three placings in three runs and missing out on that maiden win, Free Vino broke through under Stubby Holder to dominate the field by over 4l for Gordon Richards & Damien Moyle.
“We thought we would throw him in to a no metro win race as he’s being going well and Stubby rode him a treat,” Damien Moyle said.
“He had a little injury setback, and let’s hope he can go on with it from here.
“The 1400m is just perfect for him at the minute, but if a mile bobbed up, I would be hesitant to put him in there,” he said.
It was a return to racing after a short freshen up for Prince Jofra, and he didn’t waste any time steered home by Alana Livesey in a strong race.
After a couple of attempts at Country Cups in Victoria, Travis Doudle was happy to see Prince Jofra score another win.
“He didn’t take long to freshen up and he’s quite a tough horse and got the job done today.
“At this stage we are going to keep him fresh and with that, hopefully win a few more races for the owners,” he said.
It was a Phillip Stokes quinella in Race 6 with Miss Kermie, ridden by Emily Finnegan, edging out Apache Star in a very close race, and Tommy Stokes was thrilled to see the hard work pay off for the mare.
“She’s just been improving each preparation and the step up to the 1400m suited her today,” he said.
For Byron Cozamanis, Foster Street made it two wins from three starts as Ryan Hurdle steered him home in the final race of the day.
Byron Cozmanis was pleased with the performance of his mare.
“Her work during the week was really good and she’s a nice horse.
“The team are going really well, and we hope it keeps going that way,” he said.
With their wins on the weekend, both Will Clarken and Phillip Stokes have closed the gap to Richard Jolly in top spot for the Morphettville Trainers Premiership.
We have reached the halfway mark of the 2023 Spring Racing Carnival at Morphettville, with three BIG race days remaining over the next two weeks, starting with Derby Day this Saturday.
