Melbourne Cup Carnival

Makybe Diva did what no other horse has managed in the Melbourne Cup: she won it three years running, in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Glen Boss rode her every time. David Hall trained her for the first win before Lee Freedman took over for the next two, which also took Freedman to five Cups in total. Since her third victory no horse has even won the race twice, and the record of the champion mare looks as safe as ever.

Bart Cummings won the Melbourne Cup twelve times, a record no other trainer has come anywhere near. The first came with Light Fingers in 1965, the last with Viewed in 2008, more than four decades later. Along the way his Kingston Rule set the race record of 3:16.30 in 1990, a time no winner has bettered in the 35 years since. Lee Freedman is next on the all-time list with five Cups, fewer than half the Cummings total.

For 154 years no woman rode a Melbourne Cup winner. Then Michelle Payne won on Prince of Penzance in 2015, a 101.00 outsider in the betting. Ten years later Jamie Melham became the second, guiding Half Yours home by a length and a half on a soft track for Tony and Calvin McEvoy. Melham had already won the Caulfield Cup on the gelding, and twelve months earlier she had finished third in the race on Okita Soushi.

Kingston Rule set the Melbourne Cup time record in 1990, and no winner has bettered it since. The son of Secretariat covered the 3,200m at Flemington in 3:16.3, holding off The Phantom by a length. The pair started 7-1 equal favourites, with jockey Darren Beadman riding the winner. He was the eighth of Bart Cummings' 12 Cup winners, having lost his first Australian start by 35 lengths for trainer Tommy Smith.