Melbourne Cup Form Guide

As you place your bet today, you do so alongside hundreds of thousands of fellow Australians, risking around $1.5b on the Spring Racing Carnival. Betting agencies see a 50% spike in activity on Cup day, and stand to turnover around $400m. 25 million swimming pools of alcohol will be consumed, and around $50m spent on fascinators, ties, suits, and frocks. That’s not to mention grooming; where ladies see their beautician or hair stylist for an up-market look, or hipster gentlemen see their barber for a beard trim - $200 on average spent.

Who said the nation stops or the economy is dead?

The Form

As you pull out your form guide to pick a winner, consider the following statistics on the 3200m race;

• Barrier 18 has never won a Melbourne Cup – farewell Curren Mirotic
• The most successful barriers have been 9-12, with 8 victories from 2006-2015. Hello Grand Marshal, Secret Number, Oceanographer, Hartnell, Exospheric, Sir John Hawkwood, & QEWY
• Barrier 11 has provided more winners, Oceanographer should be pleased.
• In terms of lucky saddlecloths, try 4 & 12 as they’ve managed 11 wins in the last 10yrs – Bondi Beach, and Jameka.
• The best age for a horse tends to be 4 or 5, which includes Bondi Beach, Exospheric, Jameka, Beautiful Romance, Grey lion, Oceanographer, and Pentathalon.
• Average weights of winners over the last decade have been 54kg-55kg, which covers horses 9-14
• 9 of the 14 Caulfield Cup Winners have doubled with a Melbourne Cup win, can Jameka do it?

If that’s all too confusing, you can always throw out the form guide and pick your favourite colour (blue has helped 41 winners over the line). Another trick is to look at the odds. 68 winners have come from odds $4-10, 50 from $10-20. So that long-shot, might just be that. But don’t forget Michelle Payne smashed that myth with the Prince of Penzance win in 2015 at $101!

Best of luck on the day.