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A ballot exemption for the $10 million Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday of November is up for grabs on Friday night under the lights at The Valley with a class field of stayers gathered for the 2025 Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup.
Friday night, 2500m, and a field full of Cup dreamers. The Moonee Valley Gold Cup isn’t just a warm-up — it’s a war of attrition with a golden prize. One will stay, one will slay, and the rest? Back to the drawing board.
The Group 2 $750,000 Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) field has drawn a top-class line up of 14 gallopers with markets led by the Ciaron Maher trained Gilded Water at $3 through race sponsor Ladbrokes.com.au.
The five-year-old son of Fastnet Rock is a dual acceptor also still officially in the mix for Wednesday’s Group 3 Ladbrokes Geelong Cup – another important 2025 Melbourne Cup lead-up race – with a decision from the stable pending on which race he will contest.
Gilded Water was a two-length winner at Caulfield over 2000m two back and is out to atone for his disappointing loss when third to Valiant King as the beaten favourite in Flemington’s Group 3 The Bart Cummings at his latest.
The bookies are taking no chances and have him on top to bounce back with the import leading markets for both this and Wednesday’s race.
Should he run on Friday evening he will jump from barrier two in on a favourable 55kg with Declan Bates booked for the ride.
He currently sits 41st on the latest Melbourne Cup order of entry and so needs to win to get into the 24-horse field.
The last horse to pull off the Moonee Valley Gold Cup–Melbourne Cup double in the same year was the mighty Kingston Rule back in 1990, and no one’s matched the feat since.
More recently, Darren Weir’s 2014 MV Gold Cup winner Prince Of Penzance came back for second in 2015, then shocked the nation with a 100/1 boilover in the Melbourne Cup.
Following Gilded Water in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup betting markets are a further four single figure fancies at time of publish with Berkshire Breeze the next best at $5.
Another hailing from the Maher stable, the dour grey has winning form up to 2600m but hasn’t won since July of 2024 so is out to break a notable winning drought.
He brings in the right form lines however having finished second to subsequent Caulfield Cup champion Half Yours in the Group 3 Naturalism before a last start sixth in The Bart Cummings – the winner of which ran out of his skin for third in the Caulfield Cup trifecta.
Michael Dee is booked to ride Berkshire Breeze with the horse going around The Valley circuit for the first time from gate six.
Maher prepared last year’s Moonee Valley Gold Cup champion Okita Soushi who famously franked the form with his next-up third to shock champ Knight’s Choice in the 2024 Melbourne Cup results.
Along with the top two in betting this season Maher will also saddle-up veteran nine-year-old Smokin’ Romans who is rated a $7 chance on the back of his close fourth under two lengths off the winner in the Group 2 Herbert Power at his latest.
The grand old campaigner carted 59kg in that mile and a half event and will relish coming back to 56.5kg at Moonee Valley but has a wide draw (10) for jockey Ben Melham – who rode Grand Marshal for his 2016 win in this event – to overcome.
The other $7 fancy in the current markets is the Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young trained 57kg equal top-weight Brayden Star.
He narrowly took out the Herbert Power at Caulfield on October 11 but rises notably in weight up from 53kg so will need to lift to secure back-to-back Group 2 wins.
Another dual acceptor for both the Geelong Cup and Moonee Valley Gold Cup this season is Onesmoothoperator with Brian Ellison’s UK raider having won the former last year by over two lengths before his Melbourne Cup 12th.
If connections opt to bypass Ladbrokes Geelong midweek and save the visitor for Friday night, he will jump from gate four with hoop of the hour Mark Zahra booked for the ride.
Onesmoothoperator currently pays Moonee Valley Gold Cup odds of $9.
Other notable hopes include the Kris Lees trained Changingoftheguard who looks more likely to contest the Geelong Cup and value runner Hezashocka for Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr with the eight-year-old son of Shocking coming off a fourth to Globe in the Group 1 Might And Power (2000m).
The 2025 Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup is set to run as Moonee Valley Race 7 at 9:15pm (AEDT) on Friday night’s eight-race card.
Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup 2025 Results
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1st
5. Onesmoothoperator (3)
J: Mark Zahra 56.5kg
T: Brian Ellison |
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2nd
9. Athabascan (7)
J: Daniel Stackhouse 55kg
T: John O'Shea & Tom Charlton |
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3rd
13. Scary (6)
J: Lachlan Neindorf 53kg
T: Emma-Lee & David Browne |
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4th
11. Berkshire Breeze (5)
J: Michael Dee 55kg
T: Ciaron Maher |
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5th
8. Grand Pierro (2)
J: Zac Spain 56kg
T: Jason Warren |
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6th
10. Cleveland (4)
J: Jye McNeil 55kg
T: Kris Lees |
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7th
6. Post Impressionist (9)
J: Ethan Brown 56.5kg
T: Anthony & Sam Freedman |
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8th
3. Smokin' Romans (8)
J: Ben Melham 56.5kg
T: Ciaron Maher |
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9th
2. Trav (1)
J: Masahiro Hashizume 57kg
T: Raymond Connors |
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10th
1. Brayden Star (11)
J: Craig Williams 57kg
T: Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young |
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11th
14. So You Are (10)
J: Cejay Graham 53kg
T: Stirling Osland |
CHANCES ARE YOU’RE ABOUT TO LOSE.
For free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.
