Cox Plate champion Via Sistina withdrawn from Melbourne Cup by owners, prioritising recovery

Owners of Cox Plate winner Via Sistina have ruled her out for next Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.

The Chris Waller-trained seven-year-old shot into favouritism for the Cup when she broke Winx’s Cox Plate course record, blowing the field away by eight lengths in a canter.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Via Sistina storms to stunning Cox Plate victory.

But Yulong Investments, which is her ownership group, were never committed to starting her in the race that stops a nation.

And on Wednesday morning, they made the call to pull her from Australia’s greatest race.

Via Sistina became the world’s top-ranked horse on the back of her extraordinary win last Saturday at Moonee Valley.

While Waller was trackside at Flemington on Tuesday to watch his spring carnival charges go through their paces, Via Sistina was spending some recovery time at a farm.

The Kiwi mentor, who trained legendary mare Winx, said on Tuesday that the connections of Via Sistina were yet to make a call on whether she would saddle up for the Cup on November 5.

Bought by Yulong Investments for $5.5 million in December last year, Via Sistina smashed Winx’s race record in the 2040m Group 1 feature.

“We’ll have to just wait and see. It’s all about the horse in terms of how they recover, and you don’t really get a clear picture for a few days,” Waller told Sunrise on Tuesday.

“The dust is settling but we’re still watching closely on how she is and just her body language.

“We’ve all seen her go to an amazing level ... it does take a lot of energy, so therefore the recovery’s so important to make sure that she lives up to the expectations in her next start.

“Because it’s all right for everybody to say we want to see her running in the Melbourne Cup but it’s not fair on the horse if she’s not 100 per cent. At this stage she’s fine but you just need a few more days to find out all those answers.”

Waller said at the time that while Yulong was making the decision, he was still soaking up the Cox Plate triumph.

“It’s been great to see that she’s been rated the highest-rated horse in the world, which really did show how good the win was, so we’re still enjoying the celebrations of that victory,” he told reporters in a separate press conference.

“My job, as the coach, is to get her to win not just one race but many races and to advise the people that own the horse what’s in her best interest.”

Waller won the 2021 Melbourne Cup with Verry Elleegant after the mare finished third in the Cox Plate and said he couldn’t base a decision on Via Sistina from that experience.

“Every horse is different so you have to weigh everything up, there will be a hundred things that we are considering,” he said.

Had she started and won, Via Sistina would have become only the second galloper to claim the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double this century, after record-breaking mare Makybe Diva (2005).

Via Sistina will not target the Group 1 Champions Stakes at Flemington on November 9, while the $8 million Hong Kong Cup (2000m) in December is another option.

- With Glenn Valencich and Melissa Woods