Caulfield Cup

Caulfield Cup Day 2013

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Caulfield Cup Preview & Tips

A few days before the Caulfield Cup we will publish our tips, with a rundown of the main chances in the feature race, and our usual Saturday picks from our tipsters. Make sure you are signed up for our Free Tips Newsletter so you don’t miss out. To help you make your own selections visit our Caulfield Cup tips page to find out which lead-up races are good pointers to a Caulfield Cup winner, and where to place your bets.

The Caulfield Cup field contains some of Australia’s top stayers as well as some overseas runners attracted by the lure of the huge prizemoney on offer during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. There are three cut-off times for connections to declare their horse as a contender after the initial nominations, and the final field is not selected until a few days before the race, so keep an eye on our Caulfield Cup Horses page to see the possible runners.

The Caulfield Cup is normally run on the third Saturday in October, but nominations generally close early in August. Betting markets are available soon after the nominations are made public, so it is a good time to start looking for bargains. As time goes by the list of possible runners will reduce, and the odds will shorten, so keep an eye on our Caulfield Cup Odds page to see what price your favourite horse is.

Previous Caulfield Cup Winners:

The 2012 race was won by French horse Dunaden who out-stayed one of the best Caulfield Cup fields in recent years. Second past the post by only half a length was Alcopop followed by Lights Of Heaven for third.

See below for a list of previous winners for one of Australian horse racings most prestigious events.

History Of The Caulfield Cup Race

The Caulfield Cup was first held in the autumn of 1879 over 1½ miles and was won by a horse named Newminster. It was moved from the autumn to the spring in 1881, which means two races were run that year. In 1972 the metric distance of 2400 metres was adopted, and in 1979 it became a Group 1 race.

Major lead-up races are the Group 1 AJC Metropolitan, Turnbull, Underwood and Yalumba Stakes, the Group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes, formerly known as the Craiglee Stakes, and the Group 3 Craven Plate. Three-year-olds that go well in the Caulfield Cup will normally contest the Victoria Derby two weeks later, while the older horses will try their hand at the WFA Cox Plate over 2040 metres the following week, the Mackinnon Stakes over 2000  metres two weeks later or the 3200 metre Melbourne Cup.

The race has always been held at Caulfield except for 1940 to 1943 when Caulfield racecourse was used as a troop base and it was held at Flemington. The race has now grown into one of Australia’s toughest handicap races and with prize money worth over 2 million dollars it is an important lead up race to the Melbourne Cup.

Only six horses have won more than one Caulfield Cup in its long history, with the most recent being Ming Dynasty who won in 1977 and 1980. Eleven horses have won the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double, with the latest being Ethereal in 2001. The race is well- known as the first leg in Australia’s most popular betting double, the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup.