Star jockey Brent Thomson relives 1979 Cox Plate win on Dulcify
Ahead of Saturday’s $5 million Group 1 Cox Plate, jockey Brent Thomson reflects on Dulcify’s amazing 1979 win … one of the most dominant displays in the race’s proud history.
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To mangle a biblical phrase, racing giveth and racing taketh away.
Just ask legendary jockey Brent Thomson.
Racing gave him four Cox Plates, two Caulfield Cups and three Caulfield Guineas in Australia as well as an Ascot Gold Cup among a swag of top international races.
Racing also took away what he will eternally believe was a Melbourne Cup win.
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One of those Cox Plate wins and the Melbourne Cup despair was aboard the freakish galloper Dulcify.
Thomson still couldn’t believe Dulcify’s seven-length Cox Plate win, the biggest margin in the race’s history until Sunline equalled and Winx later broke the record, was 45 years ago.
“It’s incredible. You don’t really realise it yourself until it’s brought to your attention,” Thomson said.
Dulcify’s emergence into racing’s stratosphere began when he won on debut for trainer Colin Hayes at Morphettville at 300/1.
Five starts later Dulcify was the 1978 Victoria Derby winner with Thomson in the saddle.
“His only run in Melbourne prior to the Derby was on Cox Plate Day and he ran a really good second to put him right in the Derby,” Thomson said.
Dulcify again started at amazing odds in the 1979 Australian Cup over 2000m but the budding star ran down the people’s champion Manikato.
“JJ Miller rode him that day because I was suspended and he came from an awkward position in that race and won at the incredible odds of 80/1,” Thomson said.
“Manikato was always that little bit vulnerable over 2000m and clearly that wasn’t his best trip.”
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Dulcify won the 1979 AJC Derby, the first to be run in the autumn on protest after Double Century was first across the line.
Reports of the time noted bookmakers, allowed to bet on protests back then, offered 3/1 about Dulcify being awarded the race but that was without benefit of head-on vision.
But shock wins and protest controversies were only the undercard to the main event, Dulcify’s spring of 1979.
Dulcify won the Craiglee (now Makybe Diva) Stakes and Turnbull Stakes to cement his place as Cox Plate favourite at 11/4.
The gelding’s backers could have headed to the payout queue with 800m to run, as soon as Dulcify took it upon himself to extend his smooth stride.
“They refer to the school down the side at The Valley and he just let go and started going forward,” Thomson said.
“That’s what he did, he just lengthened stride and took off.
“I was literally a passenger.”
Thomson’s whip was merely a decoration as Dulcify careered away, opening a big gap on his rivals on the home turn.
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Illustrious racecaller Bill Collins decreed the 1979 Cox Plate over as a contest on the home turn, using the last 200m of Australasia’s weight-for-age championship to hail the new star.
“Brent Thomson going for his fourth Cox Plate … and he’s got it. He’s home Dulcify,” Collins cried.
Thomson didn’t have the modern luxury of the giant screen to watch himself and Dulcify cruise to victory.
He didn’t even take a sneaky look over his shoulder to see where the rest of the field was.
Dulcify’s high speed might have also been a factor in Thomson keeping his eyes forward.
“Without looking around, I knew how far I was in front,” Thomson said.
“I’ve heard that call so many times on the replay but concentration was a big factor.
“People forget that in that era there wasn’t electronic timing but on that day, he ran a faster last 600m than they did in the Moir Stakes over 1000 on the day.
Collins closed out his Cox Plate call with, “Dulcify’s won by a minute … and that’s the way he might win the Melbourne Cup”.
Collins was a universally admired racecaller. But he was no prophet.
There would be no Melbourne Cup triumph.
Dulcify broke down badly as a short-priced favourite in the Melbourne Cup and was euthanised.
Thomson will never change his view that Dulcify would have won the Melbourne Cup in a canter had he not sustained what turned out to be fatal injuries in the Flemington epic.
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“I firmly believe that he would have won the Melbourne Cup by a similar margin that he won the Cox Plate,” Thomson said.
“History says I didn’t win a Melbourne Cup but he would have been a walk in the park.”
Thomson left Australia four years later to ride for then powerful owner Robert Sangster in Europe.
That experience gave Thomson the chance to ride some terrific horses overseas but said Dulcify would have comfortably measured up against the best in the world at the time.
“He would have measured up overseas. He had the brilliance to do that,” Thomson said.
“In modern days, you wouldn’t have hesitated to take on the best horses overseas, especially over 2000m.
“He would have been able to hold his own, at least, at that distance”
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Thomson back in the saddle at The Valley
The modern generation will get a glimpse of one of the masters of the past when Brent Thomson rides at Tuesday’s ‘Breakfast with the Best’ trackwork session at The Valley.
Thomson won four Cox Plates in the 1970s, equalling Jack Purtell and recent greats Hugh Bowman and Glen Boss and one shy of record holder Darby Munro.
The New Zealand-born jockey known as ‘The Babe’ started riding work for champion trainer Ciaron Maher at the age of 66 earlier this year and has continued building fitness in the ensuing months.
Thomson will ride at least one galloper for Maher on Tuesday morning.
“I’ve kept my finger on the pulse as well leading up to this because I wanted to be as fit as I can for it,” Thomson said.
“It’s an important trackwork morning for those runners a few days before the main event.”
He said it would be the first time he had ridden at The Valley since the late 1990s.
“I finished riding in 2000 and in 1998 I went to Macau so it would have been just before that,” Thomson said.
Thomson said it would be impossible to stave off the memories of past glories once he hit the track on Tuesday.
The Valley layout hasn’t changed in the decades since Thomson last rode on the circuit but he has provided visiting jockeys with snippets of advice on how to ride the unique track in years gone by.
â¦@TheValleyâ© â¦@cmaherracingâ© â¦@KarakaChatâ© â¦@snowyclarkâ© ready to rock & roll next Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/d2NIedvpKm
— Brent Thomson (@dulcifybp) October 17, 2024
“Cox Plate Day, I still do get a few goosebumps, and I might riding around The Valley again,” Thomson said.
“It might bring back a few memories, that’s for sure.
“The layout of the land is still the same as what I rode around.
“It’s still very much the same Moonee Valley.
“I’ve walked around it in the past with other jockeys and it’s still the same track to me.”
Thomson said The Valley gave Maher a great chance to win his second Cox Plate with Pride Of Jenni.
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Pride Of Jenni went down narrowly in the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes at Randwick last Saturday but Thomson said getting back to The Valley would be perfect for the seven-year-old.
“I think The Valley is made for Pride Of Jenni,” Thomson said.
“She makes it hard for other jockeys to ride against her.
“She has a really aggressive style and can run at high speed for a good distance.
“The Japanese runner (Prognosis) is a query as well.
“Never discard Mr Brightside either but she has it over them around the track.”
Originally published as Star jockey Brent Thomson relives 1979 Cox Plate win on Dulcify
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