Knight’s Choice ($91) is the 2024 Melbourne Cup winner!
The Melbourne Cup past winners list reads like the who’s who of Australian horse racing with many legendary gallopers having etched their name in the Melbourne Cup history books by winning the ‘race that stops a nation’.
Now worth $8.56 million in prize money, the iconic Melbourne Cup is a staying showdown run over 3200-metres at Flemington Racecourse on the first Tuesday of November each Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.
It takes a special horse to win the Melbourne Cup and there is a unique story behind each of the past Melbourne Cup winners from the inaugural champ Archer who won the first two editions of the race in 1861 and 1862, to the sole triple Melbourne Cup winner in the mighty Makybe Diva (2003 – 2005).
Looking over the Melbourne Cup past winners can give punters a good guide as to what horse to back in the latest edition of the event.
, when you’re ready to bet on the next horse to add their name to the Melbourne Cup winners the Melbourne Cup odds you’re after can be found online at Ladbrokes.com.au.
Past Melbourne Cup Winners
Before going onto the heroes that have won the modern version of the Melbourne Cup, it would be good to take a closer look at the history of Melbourne Cup results, which spans more than a century of great horses and dedicated jockeys.
The first ever winner of the event was a classy thoroughbred named Archer on the race’s inaugural run in 1861. Archer would prove his worth when he won the Melbourne Cup once again the year after. On their website, the Victoria Racing Club acknowledges other past winners as well as the more ‘famous’ ones.
Some of the more notable Melbourne Cup winners include Carbine (1890), Phar Lap (1930), Peter Pan (1932 & 1934), Comic Court (1951), Rising Fast (1954), Galilee (1966), Rain Lover (1968 & 1969), Kiwi (1983), Vintage Crop (1993), Saintly (1996), Might And Power (1997), and Makybe Diva (2003, 2004 & 2005).
In the modern Melbourne Cup, the winning ways of Makybe Diva cannot be overlooked as no other mare had ever won more than one Melbourne Cup beforehand. Makybe Diva would go onto win three consecutive Melbourne Cups, a feat never achieved before or since and is considered one of the best female horses in racing history.
International Melbourne Cup Winners
The Melbourne Cup has reached legendary status as a major annual thoroughbred horse race. Since 1993, horses from the northern portion of the world have travelled all the way to Melbourne just to get an opportunity to compete in the prestigious Melbourne Cup. This tradition began when an outstanding horse named Vintage Crop (trained and bred in Ireland) won the 1993 Melbourne Cup despite the long travels. Those few punters with bets on Vintage Crop were made very happy.
This pilgrimage would change the nature of Melbourne Cup winners forever.
Vintage Crop’s trainer Dermot K Weld would return to win another Melbourne Cup with a European raider with Media Puzzle in 2002.
Another notable international Melbourne Cup winner was Japan’s Delta Blues, the only Japanese-trained Melbourne Cup winner in history, back in 2006.
The 2006 Melbourne Cup was an intriguing one with Japan securing the Melbourne Cup Quinella with Delta Blues beating home Pop Rock.
Overseas-bred horses now dominate the Melbourne Cup field each year both with overseas-trained raiders being bought over and international imports purchased by Aussie connections to win the famous two-mile feature.
Two of the most recent past Melbourne Cup winners are Americain (2010) and Dunaden (2011), both prepared in at the time of their success.
Following them, in 2014 the German-trained raider Protectionist secured a win for the internationals.
There were successive international Melbourne Cup winners again in 2017 and 2018 with Rekindling and Cross Counter respectively.
The Aussies fought back however in 2019 with the Danny O’Brien-trained Vow And Declare the first Aussie-bred Melbourne Cup winner since Shocking (2009).
The internationals were back in winning form dominating the 2020 Melbourne Cup results with the first three over the line all raiders: Twilight Payment (1st), Tiger Moth (2nd) and Prince Of Arran (3rd) who ran top three for the third straight year.
The 2022 Melbourne Cup results saw the top-weight Gold Trip defeat fellow Aussie-trained stayers Emissary (2nd) and High Emocean (3rd) who came off lead-up wins in the Geelong Cup and Bendigo Cup respectively.
The Melbourne Cup 2023 winner was Without A Fight for Anthony & Sam Freedman who backed-up from his Caulfield Cup victory to become the 12th horse in history to do the double and was ridden to victory by the previous year’s winning jockey Mark Zahra.
In 2024 Knight’s Choice, trained on the Sunshine Coast, scored a massive boilover at $91 to become the first Australian bred and trained Melbourne Cup winner since Vow And Declare (2019).
Whatever horse you’re backing to win the Melbourne Cup you can bet that Ladbrokes.com.au are offering the best Melbourne Cup betting markets!
Recent Melbourne Cup Winners
The most recent Melbourne Cup winners going back to 2000 are listed below along with Melbourne Cup winning trainers, jockeys and winning Melbourne Cup times.
| Year | Winner | Trainer/s | Jockey | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Knight’s Choice | John Symons & Shelia Laxon | Robbie Dolan | 3:19.53 |
| 2023 | Without A Fight | Anthony & Sam Freedman | Mark Zahra | 3:18.37 |
| 2022 | Gold Trip | Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | Mark Zahra | 3:24.04 |
| 2021 | Verry Elleegant | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 3:17.43 |
| 2020 | Twilight Payment | Joseph O’Brien | Jye McNeil | 3:17.34 |
| 2019 | Vow And Declare | Danny O’Brien | Craig Williams | 3:24.76 |
| 2018 | Cross Counter | Marmelo | Prince Of Arran | 3:21.17 |
| 2017 | Rekindling | Joseph O’Brien | Corey Brown | 3.21.19 |
| 2016 | Almandin | Robert Hickmott | Kerrin McEvoy | 3.20.58 |
| 2015 | Prince Of Penzance | Darren Weir | Michelle Payne | 3.23.1 |
| 2014 | Protectionist | Andreas Wohler | Ryan Moore | 3.17.7 |
| 2013 | Fiorente | Gai Waterhouse | Damien Oliver | 3.20.3 |
| 2012 | Green Moon | Robert Hickmott | Brett Prebble | 3.20.4 |
| 2011 | Dunaden | Mikel Delzangles | C.P. Lemaire | 3.20.8 |
| 2010 | Americain | Alain De Royer-Dupre | Gerald Mosse | 3.26.8 |
| 2009 | Shocking | Mark Kavanagh | Corey Brown | 3.23.8 |
| 2008 | Viewed | JB Cummings | Blake Shinn | 3.20.4 |
| 2007 | Efficient | Graeme Rogerson | Michael Rodd | 3.23.3 |
| 2006 | Delta Bluess | Katsuhiko Sumii | Y. Iwata | 3.21.5 |
| 2005 | Makybe Diva | D.L. Freedman | Glen Boss | 3.19.1 |
| 2004 | Makybe Diva | D.L. Freedman | Glen Boss | 3.28.5 |
| 2003 | Makybe Diva | D.J. Hall | Glen Boss | 3.19.9 |
| 2002 | Media Puzzle | Dermot K. Weld | Damien Oliver | 3.16.9 |
| 2001 | Ethereal | Shelia Laxon | S. Seamer | 3.21.0 |
| 2000 | Brew | Michael Moroney | Kerrin McEvoy | 3.18.6 |
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