The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s premier horse race. A two-mile handicap for horses of three years and over, it has a long pedigree and has been held since 1861. This year, Gold Trip took the race ridden by jockey Mark Zahra. It joins a line of prestigious winners. Below, we give our three legends of the Melbourne Cup.
Makybe Diva
When talking about the Melbourne Cup, Makybe Diva reigns supreme. Not only is she the only horse to win three times, but she is also the only mare to win more than once. No horse has won as much money in the history of Australian racing, netting a cool AUD 14 million.
Her debut came as a three-year-old in 2002, coming in fourth place. She then hit the grand age of four and went on a winning sequence of six races. However, it was in her fifth year when her Melbourne Cup reign began, taking three consecutive wins.
The winning streak coincided just as horse racing began to step up its popularity and became more global. This is in many ways thanks to the availability of online sportsbooks. This boosted fan engagement in the sport, making it easier than ever to place bets and allowing horses like Makybe Diva to become a global sensation within the sport. This guide to sports betting from Bonusfinder makes it an easy feat for horse racing enthusiasts to bet and find bonus offers from the best sportsbooks, ranked by geographical region. You can use it to bet on races from the US, UK, and even Australia.
The final win from this amazing horse in the cup was not without controversy. It was announced that she would not race if the track was too firm. After a decision by the VRC to water it, many rival trainers decided this amounted to an unfair advantage. This was a sad footnote to the end of an excellent run and the creation of an Australian horse racing legend.
Bart Cummings
Not all legends of the track are the horse themselves. James Cummings is one of the most successful trainers in the history of the country. So far, he has trained an astounding 13 winners. Not only this, but Cummings has trained several winners of other major races such as the Caulfield Cup and Golden Slipper Stakes.
The first Melbourne Cup win for Cummings was back in 1965, with Light Fingers. This sparked an impressive three-year winning streak for him, with Galilee and Red Handed following in the years after. His most recent win was in 2008 with the horse Viewed. It was a tightly contested photo finish against the resplendent Bauer. So close was the margin that electronic devices in the saddles had to be consulted, taking it down to microseconds.
Lloyd Williams
Lloyd Williams has a huge interest in horse ownership, financed by his property and business empire. He has had 7 winning horses at the Melbourne Cup, the most recent of these being Twilight Payment in 2020. It is estimated he is worth around $670 million.
A lot of his wealth came from the burgeoning casino sector. He found the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex in Melbourne at the start of the nineties. When this was sold, he later invested around £200,000 to buy Enzeil to race in the Melbourne Cup from the Aga Khan.
