G1 Race history
Melbourne Cup
- Track
- Flemington
- Distance
- 3200m
- Conditions
- Handicap, three-year-olds and up; minimum weight 50kg, top allocated weight at least 57kg
- First run
- 1861
The Race
The first Melbourne Cup was run on Thursday 7 November 1861, with 17 starters, and was won by Archer.
Archer won the first two Melbourne Cups, in 1861 and 1862.
Makybe Diva is the only horse to win three Melbourne Cups, in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
The race record is 3:16.30, set by Kingston Rule in 1990.
Bart Cummings trained 12 Melbourne Cup winners, the most by any trainer, the last of them Viewed in 2008.
Bobbie Lewis and Harry White share the jockeys' record with four Melbourne Cup wins each.
Michelle Payne became the first woman to ride the winner when Prince of Penzance won in 2015.
Vintage Crop, trained by Dermot Weld, was the first Northern Hemisphere-trained winner, in 1993.
Verry Elleegant in 2021 was the first horse in 161 runnings to win from barrier 18.
Only one favourite won the Melbourne Cup in the 20 runnings to 2025, according to OLBG's trends table.
Winners
| Year | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Barrier | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Half Yours | Tony & Calvin McEvoy | Jamie Melham | 8 | $8.00 |
| 2024 | Knight's Choice | John Symons & Sheila Laxon | Robbie Dolan | $81.00 | |
| 2023 | Without A Fight | Anthony & Sam Freedman | Mark Zahra | $9.00 | |
| 2022 | Gold Trip | Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | Mark Zahra | $21.00 | |
| 2021 | Verry Elleegant | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 18 | $17.00 |
| 2020 | Twilight Payment | Joseph O'Brien | Jye McNeil | 12 | $26.00 |
| 2019 | Vow And Declare | Danny O'Brien | Craig Williams | 21 | $11.00 |
| 2018 | Cross Counter | Charlie Appleby | Kerrin McEvoy | 19 | |
| 2017 | Rekindling | Joseph O'Brien | Corey Brown | 4 | $15.00 |
| 2016 | Almandin | Robert Hickmott | Kerrin McEvoy | $11.00 |
A blank cell means we could not confirm it from a source, so we left it blank rather than guess.
Patterns, Rated
- Interesting 6 of the last 10 winners carried 53kg or less (n=10, 6 of 10)
- Interesting None of the 9 winners with a sourced Australian SP started shorter than $8 (n=9, 0 of 9)
- Pub stat 7 of the last 10 winners were geldings (n=10, 7 of 10)
- Pub stat Mark Zahra rode back-to-back winners in 2022 and 2023, and Kerrin McEvoy won twice (2016, 2018) (n=10, 2 of 10)
- Pub stat Joseph O'Brien trained 2 of the last 10 winners (Rekindling 2017, Twilight Payment 2020) (n=10, 2 of 10)
- Pub stat 4 of the 6 winners with a barrier confirmed by two sources drew 12 or wider (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) (n=6, 4 of 6)
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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