Melbourne Cup 2024
Melbourne Cup
Preview, Trends & Analysis
- Date: 5/11/2024
- Distance: 3200 metres
- Course: Flemington
- Conditions: Handicap
- Level: Group 1
- Prize money: $8,000,000
The Rundown
‘The race that stops the nation.’
The Melbourne Cup is the most famous race on the Australian racing calendar and falls annually on the first Tuesday of November.
A genuine staying contest that is run over 3200 metres, the race offers a chance for horses with staying pedigree and stamina to show their best on the grandest of all stages at the Flemington racecourse.
With the starting post being in the straight racing section of the track, the entrants thunder down the straight and cross the finish post twice as the roars of thousands at the course and millions across the country reverberate.
This year will mark the 161st running of the event which dates back to 1861, when won by Archer.
The Famous Winners and Record Results
The race has produced some of the most well-known horses in racing history not only in Australia but across the globe.
The horse most people automatically refer to when the Melbourne Cup is mentioned is the great mare Maykbe Diva.
She won the race a record three times in a row – a feat yet to be achieved by any horse in racing history.
Bart Cummings, dubbed ‘The Cup King’, is the greatest trainer ever in Melbourne Cup history winning the trophy an unprecedented 12 times with Light Fingers (1965), Galilee (1966), Red Handed (1967), Think Big (1974 & 1975), Gold and Black (1977), Hyperno (1979), Kingston Rule (1990), Let’s Elope (1991), Saintly (1996), Rogan Josh (1999) and Viewed (2008).
Jockeys Bobby Lewis and Harry White have tied for the most Melbourne Cup winning rides with four apiece.
Leviathan owner Lloyd Williams has won the cup a record seven times with his most recent winner being a 2020 triumph with Twilight Payment.
Red Cadeux became an Australian cult hero producing three amazing runner-up efforts in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
The Statistics
Barriers are probably of less importance in a race over such a long distance but it is still a factor that needs to be placed under consideration.
Barrier five has produced eight winners dating back to 1921.
Since the year 2000, there have been five barriers which have accounted for 10 wins;
- Barrier 5: Two wins
- Barrier 10: Two wins
- Barrier 11: Two wins
- Barrier 14: Two wins
- Barrier 22: Two wins
No winner of the event had come from barrier 18 in the history of the race prior to Verry Elleegant winning in 2021.
Melbourne Cup favourites currently have a 19% winning strike rate.
The most recent favourite to win the race was the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente who started the $6 elect in 2013 and held on to win from Red Cadeux.
Incentivise was the shortest priced favourite we have seen in many years, but was beaten by Verry Elleegant.
Four-year-old and five-year-old horses have dominated the Melbourne Cup.
They have combined for 90 winners with 46 of those going to the four-year-olds and 44 going to the five-year-olds.
Incredibly, only three eight-year-old horses have won the race with Twilight Payment (2020) becoming the third ever in Cup history to win the race.
The male horses have a stranglehold with only 17 wins being accounted for by female horses – the most recent of those being Verry Elleegant in 2021.
She became the first mare to win the race since Makybe Diva’s three-peat which ended back in 2005.
The traditional lead-up race for most Melbourne Cup entrants is the Caulfield Cup at Caulfield just over a fortnight prior.
In the last 20 years, the Caulfield Cup has only managed to produce one winner of the Melbourne Cup when New Zealand mare Ethereal thundered home up the middle of the Flemington straight in 2001 to take home the Caulfield Cup – Melbourne Cup double.
The Caulfield Cup is one of five ballot exempt races whereby the winner is guaranteed an automatic start in the Melbourne Cup.
The other four include The Andrew Ramsden Stakes, The Bart Cummings, The Cox Plate and The Lexus Stakes.
The Recent Winners
| Year | Winner | Trainer | Jockey | Odds |
| 2022 | Gold Trip | Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | Mark Zahra | $19.4 |
| 2021 | Verry Elleegant | Chris Waller | James McDonald | $16 |
| 2020 | Twilight Payment | Joseph O’Brien | Jye McNeil | $26.00 |
| 2019 | Vow And Declare | Danny O’Brien | Craig Williams | $9.50 |
| 2018 | Cross Counter | Charlie Appleby | Kerrin McEvoy | $12 |
| 2017 | Rekindling | Joseph O’Brien | Corey Brown | $15 |
| 2016 | Almandin | Robert Hickmott | Kerrin McEvoy | $12 |
| 2015 | Prince of Penzance | Darren Weir | Damien Browne | $101 |
| 2014 | Protectionist | Andreas Wohler | Ryan Moore | $8 |
| 2013 | Fiorente | Gai Waterhouse | Damien Oliver | $6 |
| 2012 | Green Moon | Robert Hickmott | Brett Prebble | $26 |
| 2011 | Dundaden | Mikel Delzangles | Christophe Lemaire | $1.40 |
| 2010 | American | Alain De Royer-Dupre | Gerald Mosse | $10.00 |
The Questions
The Melbourne Cup is held on the first Tuesday of November.
- Yes. The Melbourne Cup meeting coincides with a massive card of racing headlined by a host of group races.
- Punch in betdeluxe.com.au to your browser and find your home for all your different types of ways to bet not only on Melbourne Cup but every race across Australia.
Most winners or placegetters of the Melbourne Cup will usually head to the spelling paddock for a well earned rest or some will head to Sandown for Zipping Classic (2400 metres) or Sandown Cup (3200m).
