Hartnell And Complacent On Song For Cox Plate

Date - Saturday, October 24, 2015
Racecourse/Country - Moonee Valley/Australia
Surface/Distance - Turf/2040m

Middle distance specialists Hartnell and Complacent (pictured above) make up the Godolphin team for Australia's premier weight-for-age race, the G1, 2040m W. S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley on Saturday October 24.

The pair had originally been accompanied in the entries for the A$3 million-race by stablemate Contributer, Australia's reigning middle-distance horse of the year, who has been switched to the G1, 2000m Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington on October 31.

Hartnell (John O'Shea/James McDonald) and Complacent (John O'Shea/James Doyle) both galloped stylishly at Flemington and Moonee Valley respectively on Tuesday morning, turning in efforts that encouraged O'Shea to accept with them and leave Contributer until the following week.

O'Shea and his team were faced with a situation in which 15 horses were competing for a place in the 14-horse Cox Plate field with one to be eliminated at the discretion of the Moonee Valley Racing Club Committee.

With Complacent having missed a run in the previous week's Caulfield Cup, O'Shea said he wanted to ensure that he made the choice of which of his horses ran.

"I didn't want to take a chance on Complacent missing out again," O'Shea said.

"So we decided to leave Contributer out and remove the possibility of Complacent not making the field."

Hartnell goes into the G1 Cox Plate off a sixth placing behind Preferment in the G1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on October 4, an effort that gave O'Shea confidence the gelding was approaching the form that won him the G1 BMW in Sydney last Autumn.

"He's going as good as he was last preparation, if not better," he said.

"He's had two runs this time in and not much has gone right for him."

O'Shea added ear muffs to Hartnell's race-day gear at his last run and will make a slight adjustment to the process on Saturday, leaving them on only until he gets to the starting gates.

"He's more switched on this preparation than he was last time, so we tried the ear muffs," he said.

"But I just feel he'll be better if we take them off for the race."

Complacent, who like Hartnell is a son of Authorized, comes into the G1 Cox Plate as a last start winner of the G3 Craven Plate at Randwick in which he beat stablemate Hauraki.

Following that win he had prepared perfectly for the G1 Caulfield Cup, but failed to make the field because he had been handicapped too lightly.

"I thought the Caulfield Cup looked the race for him," O'Shea said.

"But he's maintained his form and his work has been very good since. He came to Moonee Valley this morning (Tuesday) and he and Hartnell both galloped beautifully and pulled up well.

"We wanted the horses who were racing best to run in the Cox Plate, Complacent and Hartnell are the right two."

The trouble-free preparations enjoyed by both horses were complemented after Tuesday's gallop by perfect barrier draws.

Hartnell came up with barrier three and Complacent drew six in the 14-runner field.

The inside barrier went to the only filly in the race, Winx with the well-performed Kermadec to start from barrier 10.