Another international dimension has been added to this year's $3 million Tatts Cox Plate with connections of Japanese star Shadow Gate confirming that they will are aiming the international Group One winner at the Moonee Valley race.
Racing Victoria's Director of Racing Operations Leigh Jordon met with Shadow Gate's trainer Mr Yukihiro Kato at Japan's Mio Training Centre this week to confirm the horse's Melbourne spring carnival plans.
Shadow Gate, a five-year-old stallion, won last year's Group 1 Singapore Cup and finished fifth behind Ramonti and Hong Kong superstar Viva Pataca in the Hong Kong Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin last December.
Shadow Gate has had three starts in Japan this season, all on dirt tracks, with a third placing his best effort so far.
He races best with the sting out of the ground, making Moonee Valley's StrathAyr surface a major factor behind his Tatts Cox Plate quest.
Kato confirmed his intention to give Shadow Gate his first look at the unique track in the Listed JRA Cup (2040m) at the night meeting on Grand Final Eve on September 26 one month prior to the Tatts Cox Plate on October 25.
Maldivian won the JRA Cup last year and in 2006 El Segundo won the race prior to finishing a close second to Fields of Omagh in the Tatts Cox Plate of that year.
The 2008 Tatts Cox Plate is looming as not only “the” race of the spring, but one of the hottest contests ever witnessed in Australian racing.
South African star Jay Peg, winner of the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free and last month's Singapore International Cup, and Viva Pataca are also heading to Melbourne for the weight-for-age championship.
Among the local stars now confirmed to take on the likes of six-time Group 1 winner Weekend Hussler are the unbeaten Light Fantastic, Perth sensation El Presidente and Doncaster Handicap winner Triple Honour.
