VIA SISTINA IS A TRUE CHAMPION

Cox Plate winner adds fifth Gl gong, helps McDonald to Melbourne Cup week record

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James McDonald rewrote the history books as the jockey of the most successful Melbourne Cup Carnival while combining with his new favourite mare Via Sistina to claim the A$3 million (S$2.64 million) Champions Stakes at Flemington on Nov 9.

The superstar Sydney-based New Zealander completed his second Group 1 double of the week when the eight-length Cox Plate heroine powered to a 2¾-length win in the 2,000-metre event.

The win followed a Champions Sprint win on Sunshine In Paris ($30 on the Singapore tote) earlier, with McDonald having won both the Coolmore Stud Stakes and Empire Rose Stakes on Victoria Derby Day on Nov 2, to take him to 10 winners for the week.

That tally equalled the mark he set in 2021, the year he won the Melbourne Cup aboard Verry Elleegant.

McDonald broke the record in the following event, the last race of the carnival, which he won aboard the James Cummings-trained Pisanello ($10), giving him four winners for the day.