Racing: Kiwi horses have tradition of cox plate success

Makybe Diva has to do a Might And Power and a Phar Lap to win tomorrow's A$3 million Cox Plate.

Might And Power is the only horse in the modern era to win a Melbourne Cup and go on to Cox Plate glory the following year.

And the year he achieved it he was judged the champion stayer of the world.

Might And Power won the 1997 Melbourne Cup and came back in October 1998 to take the Cox Plate.

Before that you have to go back to the incomparable Phar Lap, who won the Cup in 1930 and scored the second of his two Cox Plate victories in 1931.

None of the above worries Aussie punters who have backed Makybe Diva into $2.10 favourite off the back of her favourable inside draw.

Judging Makybe Diva against the record book tells only half the story.

Traditionally, the Cox Plate was simply another of the lead-up races to the Melbourne Cup.

That was until remarkable New Zealand racing administrator Ian McEwan got hold of the race in the 1970s.

New Zealand has a fine record in the Cox Plate since then, and it is not unfair to say Australia's weight-for-age stars were no better than ours through the 1980s and 1990s after Dulcify, Kingston Town, Strawberry Road and Red Anchor disappeared.

That remarkably cyclical thing turned in New Zealand's favour and the Kiwi horses starred.

When that swung back it took a true champion in Sunline to prove competitive and now Xcellent has to rise to the same level in a year when the best mare Australia has produced in decades is looking to star yet again.

From 1996 when Bonecrusher and Waverley Star staged that unforgettable Cox Plate war, practically every NZ topliner was competitive in the big race.

The year after Bonecrusher, Poetic Prince finished second to Rubiton and came back the following year to win from Horlicks and Bonecrusher.

The gigantic Empire Rose finished third to Almaraad and Stylish Century in 1989 and Surfer's Paradise swept to victory in 1991.

New Zealand produced the quinella result in 1993 (The Phantom Chance and Solvit) and 1994 (Solvit and Rough Habit) and a couple of years on Vialli and Tycoon Lil produced third placings.

We have not figured since Sunline's two victories and a second - last year King's Chapel and Miss Potential were unable to figure.