Moonee Valley racecourse manager Shaun Patterson expects a pristine track for Saturday’s annual $5 million Group 1 Cox Plate despite a week of wild weather in Melbourne. 

The city copped a barrage of wild weather, including gusts of up to 95kph on Wednesday afternoon with storms passing through the state but Patterson said the track (pictured right) had no issues whatsoever ahead of the highly-anticipated race.

“Everything’s looking good for Saturday at the moment. We were probably expecting a bit more rainfall on Wednesday actually, we thought we’d get 8-9mm so we sort of planned around that to get that amount of rain but we only got 4.5 so we came in and assessed the track on Thursday and gave it a light freshen up and gave it another 3mm to keep it within that range,” he said. 

“It’s had those three weeks off since the last meeting so it’s in great condition. We’ve had a strong nutrition program which has gone really well, it’s looking nice and thick and there’s not a lot of wear and tear across the track.”

The famous Cox Plate, run over 2040 metres, will be held at the Valley for the last time on Saturday before the course shuts down indefinitely for a major redevelopment with Flemington to host the iconic race in 2026 and most likely 2027 as well.

Patterson - leading the charge in his first Cox Plate as racecourse manager - said his crew of 11, which includes three working in the surrounding gardens - were buzzing to showcase the track and the site in all its glory on a global stage once again.

“I was at Rosehill for 18 years and been involved in some pretty big races, but the Cox Plate has a different feel, it’s regarded as one of the best. We’re so excited as a team to get this underway,” he said. “It’s a really good team we’ve got here and they’ve got a lot more Cox Plate experience than I do. They are always here, and are brilliant to have around.”

It’s been a hectic time for Patterson since taking over full-time in early May from long-time racecourse manager Marty Synan after nearly two decades at the Australian Turf Club’s Rosehill Gardens, including as racecourse manager since 2018.

“I officially started in May but probably started a few weeks earlier on the back-end of a few tracks which didn’t perform exactly how we wanted it to so we had to come in through our winter period where we’d normally have a bit of a break and give it a renovation,” he said.

“I kind of turned up quickly, assessed where we were at and from day one basically we started on the renovation.”

The Cox Plate will be run at the following times in Australia and New Zealand:

Melbourne (5:40pm)
Sydney    (5:40pm)
Brisbane   (4:40pm)
Adelaide   (5:10pm)
Perth        (2:40pm)
Canberra   (5:40pm)
Hobart       (5:40pm)
Darwin       (4:10pm)
New Zealand (7:40pm)

Story by Nick Creely/Pictures courtesy of Shaun Patterson