G1 Race history
VRC Champions Stakes (registered as the LKS Mackinnon Stakes)
- Track
- Flemington
- Distance
- 2000m
- Conditions
- Three-year-olds and up, weight for age
- First run
- 1869
The Race
The race was first run in 1869 as the Melbourne Stakes, and was renamed the LKS Mackinnon Stakes in 1937 after a former VRC chairman.
It took the Champions Stakes name in 2022 when the final day of the carnival was rebranded as Champions Day.
Phar Lap (1930), Carbine (1890) and Empire Rose (1988) are among the horses to win this race and the Melbourne Cup in the same year.
Tranquil Star won the race three times (1942, 1944, 1945).
Two horses won it back to back in the last decade: Zaaki in 2021 and 2022, and Via Sistina in 2024 and 2025.
Chris Waller and James McDonald won three in a row from 2023 to 2025 with Atishu and Via Sistina (twice).
Tosen Stardom's 2:01.22 in 2017 was the fastest time among the ten winners from 2016 to 2025.
Winners
| Year | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Barrier | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Via Sistina | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 10 | $1.80 |
| 2024 | Via Sistina | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 3 | $1.60 |
| 2023 | Atishu | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 5 | $8.50 |
| 2022 | Zaaki | Annabel Neasham | Jamie Kah | 1 | $8.00 |
| 2021 | Zaaki | Annabel Neasham | James McDonald | 8 | $2.25 |
| 2020 | Arcadia Queen | Grant & Alana Williams | Luke Currie | 5 | $2.45 |
| 2019 | Magic Wand | Aidan O'Brien | Ryan Moore | 9 | $4.80 |
| 2018 | Trap For Fools | Jarrod McLean | John Allen | 8 | $26.00 |
| 2017 | Tosen Stardom | Darren Weir | Damian Lane | 4 | $6.50 |
| 2016 | Awesome Rock | Leon & Troy Corstens | Stephen Baster | 8 | $18.00 |
A blank cell means we could not confirm it from a source, so we left it blank rather than guess.
Patterns, Rated
- Interesting OLBG counts 6 of the last 10 winners as having run in the Cox Plate within their last three starts, 5 of them last start; only Via Sistina (2024) won the Cox Plate, and none of the other four last-start Cox Plate runners finished better than fourth (n=10, 6 of 10)
- Interesting Females won 5 of the last 10 runnings (Via Sistina twice, Atishu, Arcadia Queen, Magic Wand) from 21 runners, against 5 wins from 92 male runners, per OLBG (n=10, 5 of 10)
- Interesting James McDonald rode 4 of the last 10 winners (2021, 2023, 2024, 2025) and Chris Waller trained 3 (2023-2025) (n=10, 4 of 10)
- Pub stat 4 of the last 10 winners started favourite (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025) (n=10, 4 of 10)
- Pub stat Repeat winners took 4 of the last 5 runnings (Zaaki 2021-22, Via Sistina 2024-25) (n=5, 4 of 5)
Strong signal: enough runnings and a racing reason behind it. Interesting: worth knowing, not worth betting on alone. Pub stat: fun at the bar, useless at the window.
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