The weights and order of entry.
Superstar mare Via Sistina will carry the top weight if she runs in this year’s Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).
Chris Waller’s 10-time Group 1 winner has been allotted 59kg for the race that stops a nation to be run at Flemington on the first Tuesday in November.
The reigning Australian Horse of the Year, who ran third in the Makybe Diva Stakes on the weekend, will carry the top weight if she heads that way after she attempts to defend her Cox Plate crown.
She shares the top weight with import and current Cup favourite Al Riffa.
The prized Australian Bloodstock purchase, trained by two-time Cup winner Joseph O’Brien, is an Irish St Leger (2800m) winner.
Reigning Cup champion Knight's Choice will carry 55kg, up 3.5kg from his shock win at huge odds last year.
Aidan O’Brien’s raider Scandinavia will carry 55.5kg, while emerging mare Treasurethe Moment (54kg), Buckaroo (57kg) and Arapaho (56.5kg) all sit high in the order of entry.
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s Sir Delius, the race’s current second favourite, has 55.5kg and two-time Cup runner Vauban has been assigned 56.5kg.
Deakin (52kg), Parchment Party (52kg), Revelare (51.5kg) and Basilinna (51kg) are all assured a Cup start after winning ballot exempt races.
“This year marks a change in Group 1 handicapping in Victoria, where the topweights must now be assigned 59kg and the minimum weight for older horses is 51kg, which represents a 1kg increase overall in the weight structure compared to recent years," said Racing Victoria's chief handicapper David Hegan.
“The topweights for the Melbourne Cup are clear cut, with Via Sistina and Al Riffa both set 59kg which is the new minimum topweight requirement in both cups. However, they are two different competitors with contrasting form lines.
“Via Sistina’s record speaks for itself, and she carries the single best performance rating of any nominated horse following her dominant eight-length win in last year’s Cox Plate. Her class is clear in races up to 2000m, with the staying challenge of two miles the only major query.
“Al Riffa was a dominant winner of the Group 1 Irish St Leger on Sunday. He has now won Group 1 races at distances ranging from 1400m to 2800m and follows other recent winners of the Irish St Leger in Sonnyboyliston (2021) and Order Of St George (2017) in being at the top of the Melbourne Cup weights.
“Reigning Melbourne Cup champion Knight’s Choice carried 51.5kg last year so when factoring in the new weight scale, he effectively moves up 2.5kg, even though he’s assigned 55kg. Comparatively, two other lightweight winners in the past decade, Almandin (52kg) and Prince of Penzance (53kg), both progressed 2.5kg the following year from their victories."
Check out the Melbourne Cup weights and latest order of entry HERE.
