WHO:
Stayers using this as a stepping stone to the Melbourne Cup.
WHAT:
2400 metres
WHEN:
Saturday 17 October 2026
WHERE:
Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne
WHY:
$6 million in prizemoney (up from $5 million in 2025), with $3.3 million to the winner and every starter paid for the first time. 2026 is the 150th running of the race.
Who will win the Caulfield Cup?
It is always tricky trying to find the winner of a handicap staying race.
It is made even trickier when it is hard to know whether this race is the grand final or whether the horse you like is using it as a platform to win the Melbourne Cup.
Usually a horse who settles anywhere from on-pace to midfield is preferable, but the superior wide lanes of the Caulfield straight can come into play if gallopers slingshot out deep on the track.
While the track might seem a leisurely stroll, the acid test really comes on in the back straight with an elevated back section that can suck the air out of a horse who does not have big aerobic capacity.
THE EARLY CONTENDERS
Incentivise is the early Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup favourite following a jaw-dropping patch of form in Queensland.
He won the Group 3 Tatts Cup by a record 12 lengths and did so under a strangle hold in the last bit of the race.
Not only does he have enormous aerobic capacity, he boasts a sharp, sustained turn of foot that only Group 1 horses possess.
Peter Moody has taken over at trainer of the horse, so we can expect a further few lengths improvement.
Could start one of the shortest priced favourites’ we have had in recent time if he can get his lead-up runs right.
Zaaki is firm in the market given his brilliant run of form during the Queensland racing carnival through June and July.
His trainer Anabel Neasham first unveiled him on Australian soil earlier this year in the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m) and he rocketed home to show what a brilliant burst of sustained speed he has.
He would go on to win the Doomben Cup (2000m) and Q22 (2200m) in impressive fashion to sky rocket into Cox Plate contention.
The scary thing about him is that he might even improve a length or two after having a nice spell to freshen his legs and put on the size he may have lost acclimatising to Australian conditions.
A guaranteed starter of the Caulfield Cup after winning the ballot exempt Mornington Cup (2400 metres) in the Autumn Carnival.
He is an Irish import to the Michael, John & Wayne Hawkes stable who is owned by famous racing icon Rupert Legh.
The beauty about this gelding is his ability to take luck out of the equation by settling on the speed.
This is his third preparation in his Australia, and he will carry the minimum weight in the race which is a big tick.
The 2020 winner of the Caulfield Cup.
A five-year-old mare from the Chris Waller stable who has a jet propeller attached to her hind quarters when asked for an effort.
She gave Waller his first Caulfield Cup as a trainer and could very well make it back-to-back wins if she can show her Autumn form.
Group 1 wins in the Chipping Norton (1600m) and Ranvet Stakes (2000m) showed her ability to stay in form.
The query on her is her head carriage in the run and her ability to settle over further than 2000 metres.
Her win in the Caulfield Cup last year put all those doubts to rest.
EARLY TIP – Mount Popa each-way at $15 the win and $4.6 the place.
The early nod goes to Mount Popa. He has qualified for the race and his on-pace racing will be perfectly complemented by a lightweight.
THE FAMOUS WINNERS
The Caulfield Cup is a race heaped in prestige with many brilliant horses having won the event and giving this race the title of one of the premier handicap staying races in the country and in the world.
Only seven horses have won the race multiple times; Paris (1892, 1894), Hymettus (1898, 1901), Poseidon (1906-07), Uncle Sam (1912, 1914), Whittier (1922, 1925), Rising Fast (1954-1955) and Ming Dynasty (1977, 1980).
The most famous of winners in recent times would have to been Might and Power (1997). His eight-length demolition job will still go down as the most crushing win the race has ever seen. He and Ethereal (2001) held the mantle as the most recent horses to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double for more than two decades, until Without A Fight did it in 2023 and Half Yours repeated the feat in 2025. Half Yours also gave Jamie Melham the honour of being the first female jockey to win the Caulfield Cup, and she went on to win the Melbourne Cup on the same horse.
Doriemus (1995), Let’s Elope (1991), Gurner’s Lane (1982), Galilee (1966), Even Stevens (1962), Rising Fast (1954), Rivette (1939), The Trump (1937) and Poseidon (1906) are the other horses to have achieved the Cup double feat.
Of course, it would be remiss to exclude mentioning the great Bart Cummings. The champion trainer holds the record for most Caulfield Cup winners with seven to his name. The last of those was his mighty stayer and Melbourne Cup winner Viewed (2009) who was given one of the best Caulfield Cup rides ever by Brad Rawiller. Among current trainers, Ciaron Maher leads the way with two wins (Jameka 2016, Duke De Sessa 2024) and holds the strongest hand in 2026 with Zahrann, Saint George and Royal Supremacy all in the top of the market.
Damien Oliver, who retired in December 2023, remains the most successful jockey of the modern era with four Caulfield Cup wins, the last of them on Sky Heights in 1999. Of the current riders, Jamie Melham made history in 2025 when Half Yours became the first Caulfield Cup winner ridden by a woman.
RECENT WINNERS
| Year | Winner |
| 2025 | Half Yours |
| 2024 | Duke De Sessa |
| 2023 | Without A Fight |
| 2022 | Durston |
| 2021 | Incentivise |
| 2020 | Verry Elleegant |
| 2019 | Mer De Glace |
| 2018 | Best Solution |
| 2017 | Boom Time |
| 2016 | Jameka |
| 2015 | Mongolian Khan |
| 2014 | Admire Rakti |
| 2013 | Fawkner |
| 2012 | Dunaden |
| 2011 | Southern Speed |
| 2010 | Descarado |
How do I bet on the Caulfield Cup?
Punch in betnation.com.au on your internet browser or download and open the Bet Nation application on your smartphone.
Find the horse racing futures markets and click on the Caulfield Cup markets.
Futures betting is open now. Second acceptances close on Tuesday 6 October, the final field of 18 plus emergencies and the barrier draw are released on Tuesday 13 October, and the race is run at Caulfield on Saturday 17 October 2026.
