Who are the greatest Melbourne Cup winners of all time? From Archer and Carbine to Phar Lap and three-time champion Makybe Diva, The Sporting Base ranks the top 10 horses to win the race that stops a nation, ahead of the 166th Lexus Melbourne Cup on Tuesday 3 November 2026.
The road to Flemington is heating up. Fifty-eight horses remain in contention for the 166th running of the $10.2 million Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) after second declarations, according to the Victoria Racing Club, and the race is on Tuesday 3 November 2026. Cups double hero Half Yours heads the weights on 59kg, and the Caulfield Cup on Saturday 17 October will shape the field further. It is the perfect time to rank the greatest Melbourne Cup winners of all time.
The first Melbourne Cup was run on Thursday 7 November 1861, the VRC records. Since then only five horses have won it more than once: Archer, Peter Pan, Rain Lover, Think Big and Makybe Diva, the only three-time winner. The list below also takes in record-breakers, spring champions and the horse that turned the Cup into a truly international race.
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How we ranked them
We weighed four things: how each horse won the Cup (weight carried, margin and the strength of the field), whether it won more than once, what it achieved in the rest of its career, and its place in racing history, including the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. Comparing an 1860s stayer with a modern Cup winner is never exact, so the order is TSB’s opinion. Results, weights and career records come from the VRC, ABC News, the Australian Racing Museum and other reputable sources listed with each horse.
Read more: The 10 Greatest Caulfield Cup Winners of All Time
1. Makybe Diva (2003, 2004, 2005)
Trainers: David Hall (2003), Lee Freedman (2004, 2005)
Jockey: Glen Boss
Cup record: Only three-time winner; carried 58kg in 2005, a record for a mare
Career: 36 starts, 15 wins; 2005 Cox Plate, 2004 Sydney Cup and 2005 Australian Cup; Hall of Fame 2006, Legend 2010
No horse has matched Makybe Diva’s three straight Cups, and the VRC calls her arguably the best stayer to have won the race. She won in 2003 with just 51kg, took the rails on a wet track to go back to back in 2004, then carried 58kg as equal topweight in 2005, the most by a Cup winner since Think Big 30 years earlier, ABC News reported. Boss became the first jockey to win three consecutive Cups, and she won all three by 1¼ lengths. On comparisons with Phar Lap, Freedman said: “Well, I don’t want to run Phar Lap down but I never saw Phar Lap win three Melbourne Cups.” Her retirement was announced within hours of her third win.
2. Phar Lap (1930)
Trainer: Harry Telford
Jockey: Jim Pike
Cup result: Won as the 8/11 favourite carrying 9 stone 12 pounds (62.6kg)
Career: 51 starts, 37 wins; Cox Plate 1930 and 1931; inaugural Hall of Fame inductee and Legend
Most observers revere Phar Lap as Australia’s greatest racehorse, the VRC says, and his 1930 Cup win came as the shortest-priced favourite in the race’s history. Bought for just 160 guineas as a yearling, he became a hero during the Depression and won on each of the four days of the 1930 Flemington Cup carnival. The handicapper hit back in 1931 with 10 stone 10 pounds (68.03kg), and he was unplaced. Only Makybe Diva’s hat-trick keeps him off top spot on a list built around the Cup itself.
3. Carbine (1890)
Trainer: Walter Hickenbotham
Jockey: Bob Ramage
Cup result: Beat a record field of 39 carrying a record 10 stone 5 pounds (about 66kg)
Career: 43 starts, 33 wins; two Sydney Cups; inaugural Hall of Fame inductee and Legend
Carbine’s 1890 Cup is the weight-carrying performance by which all others are judged. He beat the biggest field in Cup history under an all-time record weight and set a new race record, the VRC notes, and he carried 53 pounds (24kg) more than runner-up Highborn, according to his career record. ‘Old Jack’ was later sold to the Duke of Portland for 13,000 guineas and became a great sire in England, and the VRC says most modern Cup runners trace back to him.
4. Rising Fast (1954)
Trainer: Ivan Tucker
Jockey: Jack Purtell
Cup result: Completed the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup treble
Career: Caulfield Cup 1954 and 1955; second in the 1955 Melbourne Cup; Hall of Fame 2002
Rising Fast did something no horse has done before or since. In the spring of 1954 the New Zealand gelding won the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, a Spring Grand Slam that NZ racing’s Loveracing notes is yet to be repeated. He came back in 1955 to win a second Caulfield Cup and was beaten narrowly at Flemington under 10 stone, after being bumped in the straight by the winner, Toporoa.
5. Archer (1861, 1862)
Trainer: Etienne de Mestre
Jockey: John Cutts
Cup results: Won the first two Melbourne Cups
Career: First horse to win the Cup twice; Hall of Fame 2017
Archer started the legend. He won the first Cup by six lengths from Victorian favourite Mormon in a field of 17, then beat him again in 1862 carrying 10 stone 2 pounds (64.4kg), the VRC says. Contrary to folklore, he did not walk from Nowra to Flemington: he travelled by ship, according to the VRC and his racing history. He was set to chase a third Cup in 1863 but was ruled out on a technicality when his acceptance arrived late.
Read more: Racing: The 10 Greatest Cox Plate Winners of All Time
6. Peter Pan (1932, 1934)
Trainer: Frank McGrath
Jockeys: Bill Duncan (1932), Darby Munro (1934)
Cup results: Won by a half neck in 1932; won by three lengths under topweight of 61.7kg in 1934
Career: 1932 AJC Derby; the only horse to win two Cups in non-consecutive years; Hall of Fame
Nicknamed the ‘Blonde Bombshell’ for his flaxen mane, Peter Pan became only the second dual Cup winner after Archer, the VRC says. He recovered from near defeat to win in 1932, missed 1933 after a bout of rheumatism, then returned at 14/1 on a rain-sodden track in 1934. McGrath plaited his tail to keep it out of the mud, and 21-year-old Munro steered him from the widest barrier to a three-length win the VRC rates among the great performances in Australian turf history.
7. Rain Lover (1968, 1969)
Trainer: Mick Robins
Jockey: Jim Johnson
Cup results: Won by eight lengths in 1968; won by a neck in 1969 under 9 stone 7 pounds
Career: Australian Horse of the Year 1969; Hall of Fame
Rain Lover’s 1968 Cup was a rout. He beat Fileur by eight lengths in a then race record time of 3:19.1, The Age reported at the time, in a running marred by a fall and heavy interference. Robins, a former Broken Hill miner, trained a Cup winner with his first runner in the race. Rain Lover defended his title by a neck from Alsop in 1969, becoming the first back-to-back winner since Archer.
8. Saintly (1996)
Trainer: Bart Cummings
Jockey: Darren Beadman
Cup result: Won the Melbourne Cup 10 days after the Cox Plate
Career: 1996 Australian Cup and Cox Plate, 1997 C F Orr Stakes; Australian Horse of the Year 1997; Hall of Fame 2017
Bred by Cummings and raced with his friend Dato Tan Chin Nam, Saintly was only the fourth horse at the time to win the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup in the same year, joining the likes of Phar Lap, ABC News reported. Known as ‘the horse from heaven’, he gave Cummings his 10th Melbourne Cup. Injury cut his career short. When he died in 2016, Anthony Cummings wrote: “Saintly, the horse from heaven, has gone home.”
9. Think Big (1974, 1975)
Trainer: Bart Cummings
Jockey: Harry White
Cup results: Beat stablemate Leilani by a length in 1974; won again in 1975 carrying 58.5kg
Career: Gave Cummings his fourth and fifth Cups, and White the first of four in six years
Think Big was a Cummings stayer aimed at one race only. In 1974 he started at 12/1 with 53kg and ran down the 7/2 favourite and stablemate Leilani, the VRC recalls. He then failed to win a race for a full year, but returned in 1975 with 5.5kg more to beat another stablemate, Holiday Waggon, on a damp track. White later gave him a lifetime retirement home on his farm at Gisborne.
10. Vintage Crop (1993)
Trainer: Dermot Weld
Jockey: Mick Kinane
Cup result: First European-trained winner, running past Te Akau Nick
Career: 16 wins from 28 starts; two Irish St Legers; seventh in the 1994 Cup and third in 1995
Vintage Crop changed the face of Australia’s most famous race when he became the first European-trained winner, ABC News reported. The Irish gelding, who also raced over hurdles, earned his trip with an Irish St Leger win and ran past the Gai Waterhouse-trained Te Akau Nick in the straight. Weld won the Cup again with Media Puzzle in 2002, and European stayers have targeted the race in numbers ever since.
Honourable mentions
Might And Power (1997): led from the front to complete the Caulfield–Melbourne Cups double for Jack Denham and Jim Cassidy, then won the 1998 Cox Plate.
Galilee (1966): the only horse to win the Caulfield, Melbourne and Sydney Cups in the same season.
Light Fingers (1965): beat stablemate Ziema in a photo finish to give Bart Cummings the first of his record 12 Cups, the VRC notes.
Kingston Rule (1990): set the 3200m race record of 3:16.30, which still stands.
Prince of Penzance (2015): the $101 outsider gave Michelle Payne the honour of becoming the first female jockey to win the Cup.
Half Yours (2025): won by two and three-quarter lengths, making Jamie Melham the first female jockey to win both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, ABC News reported.
The 2026 Lexus Melbourne Cup
The 166th Lexus Melbourne Cup is on Tuesday 3 November 2026 at Flemington. After second declarations, Ciaron Maher still has 14 horses in contention, headed by 2025 placegetter Middle Earth and including golden ticket winner Mr Monaco, while Joseph O’Brien and Chris Waller have nine each, the VRC reported. Half Yours, who jumps from barrier 7 in the Caulfield Cup on Saturday 17 October, is chasing the first back-to-back Caulfield Cups since Rising Fast before his bid for a second Melbourne Cup. Four golden tickets remain: the Caulfield Cup, Geelong Cup, Moonee Valley Gold Cup and Cox Plate. Third declarations close on Monday 26 October. For the full list, see our second declarations report.
Form up every Cup runner with TSB’s free Racing Form Guide, or download the TSB app on iPhone or Android. For more spring rankings, see the greatest Caulfield Cup winners and greatest Cox Plate winners.
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