The Melbourne Cup is the world’s richest handicap race and its prestige originally came from the idea that every horse had a theoretical chance of winning.
This means all horses are weight to a scale with the horses judged to have the best form and class given the most weight to carry at the top of the field, and the horses with something to prove carrying the bottom weight.
Big Orange and Our Ivanhowe carry the topweights here. Both are at 57 kilograms.
Click here to read Tristan Rayner’s exhaustive preview of the race that stops a nation, while get the low down on exotic bets here.
To stop superior horses having to carry excessive weight (i.e Phar Lap which carried 68 kilograms), the race has turned into a quality handicap system.
While the handicapping system is not precise, it does make the field as even as possible over the 3200 metres.
All initial entries for the Melbourne Cup were made by September 1 for horses of at least three-years of age.
The Victorian Racing Club (VRC) determines the weight a horse is allotted to carry and then by Septemeber 15 determines an exact handicap based on form and/or international ratings.
A horse has to be able to carry a minimum of 50 kilograms to be eligible. The weight includes the jockey and riding gear with the final handicap figure adjusted by ballast.
85 per cent of Melbourne Cup winners have weighed between 50 kilograms and 57 kilograms.
Makybe Diva was at 58 kilos when she won her historic trifecta of Cups in 2005.
Once a horse passes the various ballot tests it is ranked by its allotted weight compared to what it would carry in a weight for age race.
A horse’s handicap can and does change after September 15 which is why some trainers have extra reason to win the lead-up handicap staying races in an effort to boost a horse’s weight and position on the ballot for qualification purposes.
Final acceptances were taken at 5pm on Derby Day and the field was confirmed at 6:30pm by the VRC.
Horse | Barrier | Jockey | Country | Age | Trainer | Weight | Odds | |
1 | Big Orange | 7 | Jamie Spencer | Great Britain | 6 | Michael Bell | 57kg | $15.00 |
2 | Our Ivanhowe | 6 | Dwayne Dunn | Germany | 7 | Lee & Anthony Freedman | 57kg | $51.00 |
3 | Curren Mirotic | 18 | Tommy Berry | Japan | 9 | Osamu Hirata | 56.5kg | $31.00 |
4 | Bondi Beach | 5 | Ryan Moore | Ireland | 5 | Aidan O’Brien | 56kg | $9.00 |
5 | Exospheric | 13 | Damien Oliver | Great Britain | 5 | Lee & Anthony Freedman | 56kg | $21.00 |
6 | Hartnell | 12 | James McDonald | Great Britain | 6 | John O’Shea | 56kg | $5.00 |
7 | Who Shot Thebarman | 20 | Hugh Bowman | New Zealand | 8 | Chris Waller | 56kg | $41.00 |
8 | Wicklow Brave | 24 | Frankie Dettori | Great Britain | 8 | William Mullins | 56kg | $15.00 |
9 | Almoonqith | 19 | Michael Walker | USA | 7 | David & B Hayes & T Dabernig | 54.5kg | $21.00 |
10 | Gallante | 2 | Blake Shinn | Ireland | 6 | Robert Hickmott | 54.5kg | $61.00 |
11 | Grand Marshal | 9 | Ben Melham | Great Britain | 7 | Chris Waller | 54.5kg | $41.00 |
12 | Jameka | 3 | Nicholas Hall | Australia | 4 | Ciaron Maher | 54.5kg | $8.50 |
13 | Heartbreak City | 23 | Joao Moreira | France | 7 | Tony Martin | 54kg | $16.00 |
14 | Sir John Hawkwood | 14 | Blake Spriggs | Ireland | 8 | John P Thompson | 54kg | $101.00 |
15 | Excess Knowledge | 21 | Vlad Duric | Great Britain | 7 | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | 53.5kg | $81.00 |
16 | Beautiful Romance | 1 | Damian Lane | Great Britain | 5 | Saeed Bin Suroor | 52.5kg | $71.00 |
17 | Almandin | 17 | Kerrin McEvoy | Germany | 7 | Robert Hickmott | 52kg | $13.00 |
18 | Assign | 22 | Katelyn Mallyon | Ireland | 6 | Robert Hickmott | 52kg | $71.00 |
19 | Grey Lion | 16 | Glen Boss | Ireland | 5 | Matt Cumani | 52kg | $34.00 |
20 | Oceanographer | 11 | Chad Schofield | Great Britain | 5 | Charlie Appleby | 52kg | $8.00 |
21 | Secret Number | 10 | Stephen Baster | Great Britain | 7 | Saeed Bin Suroor | 52kg | $31.00 |
22 | Pentathlon | 4 | Mark Du Plessis | New Zealand | 5 | John Wheeler | 51.5kg | $126.00 |
23 | Qewy | 15 | Craig Williams | Ireland | 7 | Charlie Appleby | 51.5kg | $26.00 |
24 | Rose Of Virginia | 8 | Ben E Thompson | New Zealand | 7 | Lee & Shannon Hope | 51.5kg | $151.00 |