The Melbourne Cup might stop the nation, but it's usually the Cox Plate that decides which galloper is the nation's best.

This year, however, the weight-for-age championship of Australasia again looms as more of a coronation than a decider.

Winx is out for her 29th consecutive win, and to top the mighty Kingston Town with a fourth straight Cox Plate.

She won the 2015 Cox Plate by 4¾ lengths at a retrospectively generous $4.60. In 2016, when many observers regarded Hartnell as a legitimate danger, Winx started at $1.80.

Last year, having seen off her local rivals with some of the most blistering sectionals we've seen in weight-for-age racing, she started at $1.18 and Humidor briefly gave her a fright.

After thrashing Humidor in this month's Ladbrokes Stakes, Godolphin raider Benbatl looms as most likely to give Winx a scare this week.

The Cox Plate takes centre stage on a huge weekend of racing that kicks off on Friday night with the Manikato Stakes.

Winning Post has got you covered from Friday right through to Sunday, where the Victorian carnival rolls on to Sale and Hamilton in the east and west of the state respectively for their cup days.

Our form coverage kicks off on Friday with full form guides for Moonee Valley, the accompanying Canterbury night meeting and Echuca by day plus fields, colours and selections for Scone, Bathurst, Gatton, Sunshine Coast and Gawler.

The metro racing this Saturday is at Moonee Valley  in Melbourne, Randwick in Sydney, Morphettville in Adelaide, Doomben in Brisbane and Ascot in Perth.

Winning Post carries full-colour liftout guides for all those meetings plus Yarra Valley (Vic/SA/Tas edition), Kembla Grange (NSW edition) and Gold Coast (Queensland edition), as well as fields, tips, ratings and/or colours for other TAB Saturday cards.

On Sunday we've got liftout formguides for four more TAB meetings including Sale Cup day plus fields, ratings, tips and colours for a stack more Sunday and Monday programs.

Don't forget Winning Post now carries trackwork reports for all four Melbourne training tracks, all three in Sydney, Morphettville in Adelaide and a general Brisbane report.

Away from the form, we've got news columns from Queensland, NSW, six Victorian districts, SA and Tasmania.

Our readers have their say on page 8, while further back in the book Shane Templeton reminisces, Matt Stewart reports on one of the big issues of the week, Paul Richards presents his unique take on the sport, Tony Kneebone brings you his Snippets column and Number Cruncher delivers the stats that matter.

Winning Post costs $5.50 and is available Thursday afternoon in selected Ballarat newsagents, the crack of dawn Friday elsewhere.