Sir Dragonet won the A$5 million ($3.6 million) Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racing Club in Melbourne on Saturday, storming clear in the final straight in the 100th running of Australia's most prestigious weight-for-age race.
Purchased from the stables of Aidan O'Brien especially for a tilt at the 2,040-metre race, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-prepared stallion nosed in front 100 metres from the finish before crossing a length-and-a-half in front of O'Brien's Armory.
Pre-race favourite Russian Camelot was third on a gloomy afternoon in Melbourne.
"This is unbelievable," said jockey Glen Boss, who won his fourth Cox Plate.
"I couldn't have scripted the run any better ... He was up for the task."
Having let Sir Dragonet go only two months ago, O'Brien narrowly missed out on a second Cox Plate win, with his other entrant Magic Wand a late scratching because of lameness.
One of the marquee races of the annual Spring Carnival in Australia's southern state of Victoria, the Cox Plate was run without spectators at Moonee Valley for the first time due to COVID-19 restrictions.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Tom Hogue and Lincoln Feast.)
