Cox Plate history will be made on Saturday with the Australasian weight-for-age championship to run at Flemington for the first time and a dozen stars make-up the official 2026 Ladbrokes Cox Plate field.

With Moonee Valley closed for redevelopment, the $6 million spring feature known as the ‘race where legends are made’ will be run and won at Flemington Racecourse with the 106th edition of the Cox Plate drawing a typically top-class line-up of hopefuls.

2026 Cox Plate Field at a Glance:

• 12 final acceptors
• 22 Group 1s between the 12 Cox Plate 2026 contenders
• Sir Delius (Waterhouse & Bott) $4 favourite at Ladbrokes
• Ciaron Maher the leading trainer with 4 acceptors with Land Legend, Light Infantry Man, Middle Earth and Saint George
• 2 3YOs in the mix with Blind Raise and Warwoven
• 2 for six-time winning trainer Chris Waller with Aeliana and Birdman
• Cosmic Crusader on the quick back-up off a Caulfield Cup 4th

Updated 2026 Cox Plate betting at race sponsor Ladbrokes following Tuesday morning’s final acceptances is an open affair with two gallopers battling for the punters’ love with Sir Delius and Aeliana considered the most likely to salute.

A long-time favourite for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott, Sir Delius remains top of the odds at $4 with veteran jockey Craig Williams continuing associations with the Frankel six-year-old.

The entire remains lightly raced for his age with Saturday marking his 16th career start, and he is after win number eight.

A specialist at the distance, Sir Delius has three Australian Group 1s on his CV, the latest of which he collected at Randwick over the autumn when famously defeating Autumn Glow (3rd) for her sole loss to date in the Queen Elizabeth.

This prep he’s had two lead-up runs ahead of his main target for game back-to-back fourths in the Makybe Diva Stakes behind Sheza Alibi and Turnbull Stakes with the latter run on a Heavy (8) Flemington track.

Having originally been installed as a $4 co-favourite, Aeliana has now eased out to $4.50 to occupy the second line of Cox Plate betting.

The King of the Cox Plate, Chris Waller, chases his incredible seventh victory in the 2040m feature and saddles-up two hopes in his bid to add another to his record including the highly rated Castelvecchio mare Aeliana.

Sixth in the race last year behind her two-time champion stablemate, Via Sistina, the five-year-old returns fourth-up and fit on the weekend bringing in some strong form lines.

Two back she finished runner-up to the country’s best mare, the fellow Waller-trained Aeliana who trumped her rivals with ease in last Saturday’s King Charles III Stakes, in the Group 2 7 Stakes in Sydney.

She was good again further south in her latest when third in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at the track and trip this year’s Cox Plate takes place over behind Cosmic Crusader in a run full of merit.

The Turnbull has proven a superior Cox Plate form race in recent years producing a host of winners including Via Sistina (3rd in 2025) for her successful title defence 12 months ago.

Aeliana will be ridden by master hoop James McDonald who has ridden the past four straight Cox Plate winners: Anamoe (2022), Romantic Warrior (2023) and Via Sistina (2024 & 2025).

Waller, who famously trained history’s sole four-time Cox Plate champion Winx, is also represented by Birdman who pays $11 to continue his excellent spring campaign with an upset win at HQ with Ben Melham in the saddle.

After a midfield sixth fresh at huge odds in the Memsie over 1400m, the Free Eagle gelding was enormous winning the Group 1 Underwood Stakes by 1.75 lengths over Cosmic Crusader.

He was last seen running in Caulfield’s Group 1 Might And Power when third only 1.4 lengths off shock 60/1 champ Land Legend and he could be one of the overlooked Cox Plate contenders this weekend.

Ciaron Maher has a stranglehold over the Cox Plate final field numbers-wise with four acceptors including his upset Might And Power winner, Land Legend, who will again be ridden by Ethan Brown.

Anamoe (2022) is the last horse to complete the Might And Power – Cox Plate double.

Maher’s other Cox Plate horses are Light Infantry Man, 100/1 outsider Middle Earth and Saint George who ran out of his skin for second in last Saturday’s Caulfield Cup behind Kingswood.

Also on the quick back-up out of the Caulfield Cup dropping in distance is the Bob Peters’ owned WA expat Cosmic Crusader for trainer Andrea Leek who ran fourth as the beaten favourite in the mile-and-a-half classic.

Ceolwulf meanwhile is being kept safe in the markets at Cox Plate odds of $5 and firming for Joe Pride after his game second to Autumn Glow in last Saturday’s King Charles III Stakes over the Randwick mile as the beaten dual defending champion.

The ultra-consistent Tavistock six-year-old has raced exclusively in Sydney his past seven starts, including also a recent Epsom Handicap second when giving the upset winner God’s Widow a nine kilo advantage.

That said, the last time Ceolwulf visited the winners’ stall was here at Flemington last Melbourne Cup Carnival in the Champions Mile.

The 2026 Cox Plate field also features two in-form three-year-olds taking on their older rivals at WFA with Warwoven ($7) and Blind Raise ($13) having run one-two respectively in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas.

Attrition completes the line-up as a $51 roughie at time of publish despite Mitch Freedman‘s seven-year-old Churchill entire coming off a lead-up win in the Group 2 Hill Stakes at Rosehill.

The 2026 Cox Plate barrier draw will be conducted at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne from 7pm local time on Tuesday and broadcast live on Racing.com.

2026 Cox Plate Final Field

No	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Probable Weight	Penalty	Hcp Rating
1	1x66x52322	CEOLWULF (NZ)	Joseph Pride	Chad Schofield	0	59kg			118
2	2x1415x482	LIGHT INFANTRY MAN (FR)	Ciaron Maher	Harry Coffey	0	59kg			117
3	211x331x44	SIR DELIUS (GB)	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Craig Williams	0	59kg			119
4	46x80x9031	ATTRITION	Mitchell Freedman	Jamie Mott	0	59kg			113
5	112×113214	COSMIC CRUSADER (NZ)	Andrea Leek	William Pike	0	59kg			118
6	411521×613	BIRDMAN (IRE)	Chris Waller	Ben Melham	0	59kg			118
7	0x0729x001	LAND LEGEND (FR)	Ciaron Maher	Ethan Brown	0	59kg			116
8	3x891x8789	MIDDLE EARTH (GB)	Ciaron Maher	Mark Zahra	0	59kg			112
9	114×411202	SAINT GEORGE (GB)	Ciaron Maher	Blake Shinn	0	59kg			111
10	6x2211x023	AELIANA (NZ)	Chris Waller	James McDonald	0	57kg			115
11	11416×5111	WARWOVEN	Bjorn Baker	Ms Rachel King	0	49.5kg			115
12	119×112	BLIND RAISE (NZ)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Ms Jamie Melham	0	49.5kg			112

Table Credit: Racing Australia.