Twenty-four horses are engaged to face off in the Melbourne Cup 2015 field at Flemington Racecourse this afternoon and one of the big questions the punters are asking is what age will this year’s Melbourne Cup winner be?

Japan’s Hokko Brave is out to become just the third eight-year-old in Melbourne Cup history to win the Flemington two mile classic. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.

History tells us lots of things when it comes to the ‘race that stops a nation’, including statistics on the best age to win the $6.2 million Group 1 Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m).

Ages of Melbourne Cup Winners

• 3YOs – 23 winners
• 4YOs – 43 winners
• 5YOs – 45 winners
• 6YOs – 31 winners
• 7YOs – 10 winners
• 8YOs – 2 winners

This year’s Melbourne Cup line-up features hopefuls ranging in age from four-years-old to the veteran in the field, three-time runner-up Red Cadeaux ($31) a 10-year-old by Australian racing standards.

The oldest Melbourne Cup winner in history is eight-years-old, two saluting at this age over the years with Catalogue way back in 1938 the latest.

There are two eight-year-olds in the mix this year looking to break the drought with the Japanese-trained Hokko Brave ($41) and Jamie Edwards’ Geelong-trained roughie Sertorius ($101).

Three-year-olds have beaten the older Melbourne Cup horses home 23 times, with no three-year-olds in the race this year.

Four-year-olds have won just six times in the past 30 years, most recently the Mark Kavanagh-trained Shocking (2009) who came off the Group 3 Lexus Stakes (2500m) victory in Derby Day only three days earlier.

There are three four-year-olds in the race this afternoon looking to be the next with the Chris Waller-trained Preferment ($10), the lightly-raced Lloyd Williams-owned Bondi Beach ($21) prepared by Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien and the sole mare in the mix Gust Of Wind ($34) who won the ATC Oaks last season.

Five-year-olds boast the best Melbourne Cup record overall with 45 previous winners, two more than four-year-olds (43).

This year there are six five-year-old Melbourne Cup runners with the British-trained 58kg top weight Snow Sky ($51), the David Hayes & Tom Dabernig-trained Cox Plate runner-up Criterion ($18), Goodwood Cup winner over the distance Big Orange ($61), Hartnell ($31) for Sydney horseman John O’Shea, Ed Dunlop’s second favourite in the markets Trip To Paris ($7.50) and the second O’Brien-trained Irish raider Kingfisher ($34).

The best represented age group in the Melbourne Cup field today is six-year-olds with 10 runners of this age including the favourite in betting Fame Game ($5).

The other six-year-olds in the mix are Caulfield Cup third placegetter Our Ivanhowe ($20), Max Dynamite ($11) for Ireland’s William Mullins, Saeed Bin Suroor’s market mover Sky Hunter ($34), Chris Waller’s upset Sydney Cup winner over the distance Grand Marshall ($61), Roger Charlton’s roughie hope from the UK Quest For More ($71), Lindsay Park’s Geelong Cup winner Almoonqith ($18), Prince Of Penzance ($101) for Darren Weir, the Robert Hickmott-trained The United States ($21) and Excess Knowledge ($34) for Gai Waterhouse who made the field after winning last Saturday’s Lexus Stakes.

Rounding out this year’s Melbourne Cup line-up are then two seven-year-old hopes looking to be the first since Makybe Diva (2005) for her third win 10 years ago to salute at that age in last year’s third placegetter Who Shot Thebarman ($21) and Waterhouse’s 2014 Sydney Cup winner The Offer ($34).

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