Who are the greatest Caulfield Cup winners of all time? From Rising Fast and Might And Power to Galilee, Tulloch and Half Yours, The Sporting Base ranks the top 10 horses to win Caulfield’s famous 2400m handicap, ahead of the 150th Sportsbet Caulfield Cup on Saturday 17 October 2026.
The Sportsbet Caulfield Cup is Australia’s premier 2400m handicap and one of the spring carnival’s biggest days. First run in 1879, the 150th edition is at Caulfield on Saturday 17 October 2026. The Melbourne Racing Club lifted the race to $6 million in prizemoney plus trophies valued at $550,000, so the total pool is about $6.55 million, with every starter paid for the first time.
The honour roll stretches from Poseidon and Rising Fast to modern Cups double winners Without A Fight and Half Yours. The order below is TSB’s opinion. The results, margins and career notes come from official records and reputable reporting, including the MRC Caulfield Cup timeline and the club’s Greatest Caulfield Cup feature for the 150th running.
How we ranked them
We looked at four things: how each horse won the Caulfield Cup (the margin, the weight and the quality of the field), whether it completed the Caulfield–Melbourne Cups double or other spring majors, what it achieved over the rest of its racing career, and its standing in racing history, including Hall of Fame membership. Comparing a 1900s champion with a modern Cup winner is never exact, so this is a judgement call rather than a formula.
1. Rising Fast (1954 and 1955)
Trainers: Ivan Tucker (1954), Fred Hoysted (1955)
Cup results: Won consecutive Caulfield Cups; completed the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup treble in 1954
Career highlights: Only horse to win that spring treble in the same year; Australian Racing Hall of Fame (2002)
Rising Fast sits alone in Caulfield Cup history. As the MRC notes, he remains the only horse to win the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup in the same year, completing the treble in 1954. NZ Thoroughbred Racing calls it a Spring Grand Slam that has not been matched. He came back in 1955 and won the Cup again under a heavy weight, joining Poseidon as one of only two horses to win consecutive Caulfield Cups. That mix of staying toughness and big-race temperament puts him at the top of this list.
2. Might And Power (1997)
Trainer: Jack Denham
Jockey: Jim Cassidy
Cup result: Won by 7.5 lengths, breaking the course record
Career: 33 starts, 15 wins; Caulfield Cup, Melbourne Cup and 1998 Cox Plate; Australian Horse of the Year 1998 and 1999
Few Cup wins look like Might And Power’s. Cassidy let the free-running Zabeel gelding stride in front, and he demolished the field by 7.5 lengths in course-record time, with 1995 Cups winner Doriemus second, as the MRC timeline records. He then completed the Cups double at Flemington and, in 1998, added the Cox Plate, becoming only the second horse after Rising Fast to win all three spring majors across a career. Cassidy later told ABC Grandstand, as Nine.com.au reported: “I was told not to lead on him in the Caulfield Cup. I had a meeting with my manager and I said if I lead they can’t beat him.” He is remembered at Living Legends and is a Hall of Fame member.
3. Galilee (1966)
Trainer: Bart Cummings
Jockey: John Miller
Cup result: Defeated a field headed by odds-on favourite Tobin Bronze
Career: 36 starts, 18 wins; Caulfield, Melbourne and Sydney Cups in one season
Galilee’s 1966 Caulfield Cup was the start of a staying sequence that still stands alone. The Bart Cummings-trained New Zealand gelding beat a field headed by odds-on favourite Tobin Bronze, then won the Melbourne Cup at Flemington and, the following autumn, the Sydney Cup, making him the only horse to win the Caulfield, Melbourne and Sydney Cups in the same season, according to the MRC. Cummings regarded him among his finest horses. Galilee is a member of the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
4. Tulloch (1957)
Trainer: T.J. Smith
Jockey: Neville Sellwood
Cup result: Odds-on favourite as a three-year-old under 48kg
Career: 53 starts, 36 wins; Caulfield Guineas and Caulfield Cup in the same spring
Tulloch was only three when he tore through older horses in the 1957 Caulfield Cup. Carrying 48kg and starting an odds-on favourite, he overcame a wide draw and won decisively in a time then regarded among the fastest for a mile and a half on turf, as the MRC recounts. The win came a week after his eight-length Guineas demolition, which The Age later called one of Caulfield’s great sure things. Illness kept him off for two years, but he returned to win the 1960 Cox Plate and became one of Australian racing’s most revered champions. For our ranking of Guineas greats, see the greatest Caulfield Guineas winners.
5. Poseidon (1906 and 1907)
Trainer: Ike Earnshaw
Jockey: Tom Clayton
Cup results: Won consecutive Caulfield Cups; completed the first Cups double in 1906
Career highlights: Caulfield Cup (1906, 1907), Melbourne Cup (1906), Australian Derby and Victoria Derby (1906)
Poseidon wrote the Caulfield Cup’s first great chapter. In 1906, as a three-year-old, he won the Caulfield Cup and then the Melbourne Cup, becoming the first horse to complete the Cups double, according to races.com.au. A year later he became the first horse to win consecutive Caulfield Cups, sweeping around the field from the rear, as the MRC describes. Only Rising Fast has matched that back-to-back feat. Poseidon’s double launched a list that now numbers 13 horses through to Half Yours in 2025.
6. Let’s Elope (1991)
Trainer: Bart Cummings
Jockey: Steven King
Cup result: Surges from well back to defeat Ivory Way
Career highlights: Caulfield Cup–Melbourne Cup double; Australian Horse of the Year 1992; Hall of Fame
Let’s Elope became the first mare in more than 50 years to complete the Cups double, following Rivette in 1939. Still well back approaching the home turn, she was brought wide by Steven King and finished strongly to win the 1991 Caulfield Cup, then took the Mackinnon Stakes and Melbourne Cup for Bart Cummings. The VRC notes her seven-race Group winning streak across the spring and autumn, and Cummings wrote: “I doubt I’ve trained a better mare – Leilani and Light Fingers are the only ones who bear any comparison.” She was Australian Horse of the Year in 1992 and is a Hall of Fame member.
7. Ethereal (2001)
Trainer: Sheila Laxon
Jockey: Scott Seamer
Cup result: Won the Caulfield Cup, then the Melbourne Cup 17 days later
Career highlights: Cups double; Queensland Oaks and BMW Stakes among her Group 1 wins
Ethereal’s Cups double was history as well as brilliance. Seventeen days after winning the Caulfield Cup, she won the Melbourne Cup under Scott Seamer, making Sheila Laxon the first woman officially recognised as a Melbourne Cup-winning trainer, as the VRC recounts. Ethereal was the 11th horse to complete the double at the time. Laxon later said the Hong Kong Cup had been the original target, but after Ethereal pulled up so well from Caulfield she pushed on to Flemington. The mare is one of the spring carnival’s defining modern stayers.
8. Without A Fight (2023)
Trainers: Anthony and Sam Freedman
Jockey: Mark Zahra
Cup result: Won the $5 million Caulfield Cup from West Wind Blows, with Gold Trip third
Career highlights: Caulfield Cup–Melbourne Cup double in 2023
Without A Fight revived the Cups double for a new generation. Cleared to run after a late veterinary scare, the Freedman-trained stayer edged West Wind Blows in a tight finish, with Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip third, as ABC News reported. Mark Zahra then partnered him to the Melbourne Cup as well, completing the double. He was the 12th horse to do so, and the first for the Freedman team since Mummify’s Caulfield Cup in 2003.
9. Half Yours (2025)
Trainers: Tony and Calvin McEvoy
Jockey: Jamie Melham
Cup result: Favourite wins the 2025 Caulfield Cup; Melham first female jockey to win the race
Career highlights: Caulfield Cup–Melbourne Cup double; 13th horse to complete the Cups double
Half Yours is the most recent Cups double winner and already one of the race’s historic names. Jamie Melham became the first female jockey to win the Caulfield Cup when the McEvoy-trained favourite beat River Of Stars in 2025, as ABC News reported. Melham said afterwards: “Just hearing you say ‘Caulfield Cup’ is going to make me cry.” She then completed the Caulfield–Melbourne Cups double at Flemington, a first for a female jockey, with Half Yours becoming the 13th horse to win both races in the same spring, according to the VRC and ABC. He remains in the mix for the 150th Cup in 2026.
10. Verry Elleegant (2020)
Trainer: Chris Waller
Jockey: Mark Zahra
Cup result: Outstayed English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck under 55kg
Career highlights: 11 Group 1 wins, including the 2020 Caulfield Cup and 2021 Melbourne Cup
Verry Elleegant gave Chris Waller his first Caulfield Cup in 2020, powering from midfield under 55kg to beat Anthony Van Dyck in a stirring finish, as the MRC and Sydney Morning Herald recorded. It was her sixth Group 1 at the time. She went on to win the 2021 Melbourne Cup and retired as an 11-time Group 1 winner, one of the outstanding mares of the modern era and a natural inclusion among the greatest Caulfield Cup winners.
Honourable mentions
Northerly (2002): carried 58kg to beat Fields Of Omagh, then won the Cox Plate a week later; the SMH covered his spring of 2002.
Tobin Bronze (1967): dual Cox Plate winner who took the Cup under 61.5kg for Grahame Heagney and Jim Johnson.
Incentivise (2021): stormed home by 3.5 lengths for Peter Moody and Brett Prebble, as ABC News reported.
Amounis (1930): eight-year-old who won under 61kg with a last-to-first run for Frank McGrath and Billy Cook.
Redcraze (1956): still holds the heaviest winning weight record at 63kg for T.J. Smith.
The 2026 Sportsbet Caulfield Cup
The 150th Sportsbet Caulfield Cup is on Saturday 17 October 2026 over 2400m at Caulfield. The MRC set prizemoney at $6 million, with the winner to collect $3.3 million and trophies valued at $550,000, and every starter paid for the first time. Turnbull Stakes winner Cosmic Crusader has been confirmed for the race by owner Bob Peters and is the pre-post favourite, according to racing.com, with William Pike to ride and 56kg allocated. Races.com.au had Cosmic Crusader the early favourite at $4.50, with defending Cups double champion Half Yours among the next line of betting at $9. Odds move; treat them as a snapshot, not a tip. Final field and barriers are due in the week of the race.
Follow every runner on Cup day with TSB’s free Racing Form Guide, or download the TSB app on iPhone or Android. For more spring rankings, see our takes on the greatest Cox Plate winners and Everest winners ranked.
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