Mighty Mal

Rockmount pretrained its first winner of the $3 million Group 1 Tatts Cox Plate (2040m) when an ice cool Michael Rodd produced a front-running masterpiece on the Mark Kavanagh-trained Maldivian in Saturday’s Moonee Valley showpiece.

Rodd controlled the race at a leisurely pace. When he shifted up a gear approaching the home turn, Rodd still had a lapful of horse with the chasing pack all off the bit. Maldivian railed like a greyhound, dropping the overmatched Sydney raiders, Theseo and Raheeb while Zipping and Samantha Miss staged their own battle for the minor prize.

On the line, Maldivian had a length to spare over Zipping with Samantha Miss a half-neck back in third.

Maldivian swept away 12 months of frustration for connections when leading throughout to take this year’s Weight-For-Age Championship as Mark Kavanagh’s brilliant spring carnival with Rockmount graduates continued.

It was his first win since last year’s G1 Yalumba Stakes and his ill-fated Caulfield Cup mission as favourite.  Until Saturday that had been the 6yo geldings only win at Group 1 level.

Maldivian takes his overall record to 8 wins, 5 seconds and 5 thirds from 26 starts for earnings of $2,541,550.