'I can’t believe it, I thought I got beat' - Romantic Warrior battles hard to land thrilling Cox Plate

Australia's most prestigious race produced one of its most brilliant finishes with Hong Kong raider Romantic Warrior the last of three horses to lead inside the final 50 metres.

Next week's Melbourne Cup may be Australia's most famous race, but the Ladbrokes-sponsored Group 1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley is the country's most prestigious and it produced a finish so tight even the winning jockey was unsure of the result crossing the line.

Seven-time Group 1 winner Alligator Blood got first run off the famously tight bend. Around his outside came Romantic Warrior under James McDonald, while nipping up the inside rail was Craig Williams on Mr Brightside as both drove for the finish line.

In the end a neck was all that separated them.

Warrior by name, warrior by nature. Three wide, no cover is Australian racing's hurt locker. Nowhere more so than Moonee Valley – it is little bigger than Chester.

And yet that is exactly where McDonald found himself on the Danny Shum-trained gelding, having to challenge from around the final bend with just the straight (comfortably less than a furlong) to put things right. In Romantic Warrior he had a partner talented and tenacious enough to overcome it.

"This means so much. I can’t believe it, I thought I got beat," McDonald told Racing.com while still aboard the five-year-old. "The camera didn’t follow me and I can’t say what I said – I can’t believe we won the Cox Plate.

"It means so much. I had so much to do with him. I’ve been singing his praises about how much he’s improved and I needed to get a good run. I felt I gave him the best possible run I could and we won the Cox Plate baby!"

After being pushed very wide on the first bend, McDonald was able to secure a good position, on Alligator Blood's outside behind the pace-setting King Colorado and a raced-up Zaaki. But as they climbed the hill towards the crucial home turn, Mr Brightside had nipped up his inside and Alligator Blood, on whose quarters he was being ridden to hold, came around the fading Zaaki forcing McDonald wide.

To win from where he found himself on the track counts as an excellent performance and gave the hugely successful McDonald a second Cox Plate, having won his first last year aboard Anamoe.

A short-head may have been all that separated the first two, but Mr Brightside's connections will collect a cheque for just over £500,000 rather than just short of £1.7 million. That's a lot for a margin so little. Alligator Blood held on for third with Melbourne Cup hero Gold Trip running a blinder in fifth. Aidan O'Brien's Victoria Road finished ninth of 12.

Imperatriz and Tom Kitten blitz Group 1 rivals

The card's other Group 1, the £1.1m Ladbrokes Manikato Stakes, was won by 2-5 favourite Imperatriz, with the 'tangerine tsunami' in another league to his five rivals, gliding home three and a quarter lengths clear under Opie Bosson for trainer Mark Walker.

Over in Sydney, the Group 1 Moet & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes, also worth £1.1m and over the same 1m2f as the Cox Plate but restricted to three-year-olds, was won by Godolphin's Tom Kitten. With just over a furlong to run, the James Cummings-trained and Adam Hyeronimus-ridden colt had not yet hit the front, yet he pulled three and three-quarter lengths clear by the line.

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