W.S. Cox Plate W.S. Cox Plate The W.S. Cox Plate is a Moonee Valley Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged three years old and over under Weight for age conditions, over a distance of 2040 metres, held at Moonee Valley Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in late October. The race is Australia's richest weight-for-age race with stakemoney of A$5,000,000. The race is named in honour of W.S. Cox, the racing club's founder. Between 1999–2005 the event was included in the Emirates World Series Racing Championship, a global "grand prix" of horse racing. The series included the King George VI and Queen
Horse racing in Ireland horses internationally. As early as 1926, the Irish Free State legislated to allow off-course betting, and the Tote was introduced in 1930 to raise funds for the industry. The Emergency that accompanied the Second World War was reportedly beneficial to horse racing, as restrictions on foreign and motor travel led to an increase in spectator numbers. The Irish Racing Board, the predecessor to Horse Racing Ireland, was set up in 1945 to oversee the economics of the industry, followed by the Irish Horse Authority in 1995 and Horse Racing Ireland in 2001. Measures introduced by these organisations have helped the