David Gately lifts the lid on what was a fantastic Cox Plate weekend of racing.
He has broken down the track patterns below. Plus he gives key insights for you to remember the next time they race at The Valley and Randwick with similar setups.
Racing was at MOONEE VALLEY on Saturday and eleven races!
The track was downgraded to HEAVY-8 before race 1. Rail was TRUE. There were no issues running on at MV on Saturday.
In fact, four of the eleven winners sat wide. Most avoided the inside rail from about the 600m, it seemed less of a disadvantage in the home straight through.
Still, most avoided it.
You had to handle the heavy track, that was key.
In Sydney it was RANDWICK and the track was SOFT-6. The rail was 4m.
The track played quite well given the horrendous weather over the past month or so.
The inside lanes certainly held up well early, then later in the day, it was no disadvantage covering ground, away from that inside rail.