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Melbourne Cup Barrier Draw News
- All Melbourne Cup Horses In 2025 Field: Pros & Cons
- Will Half Yours Salute for the 2025 Melbourne Cup Punters and do the Double?
- Will French Raider Presage Nocturne be the 2025 Melbourne Cup Winner?
- Second Time Lucky for Buckaroo in 2025 Melbourne Cup?
- Can Al Riffa Hand Zahra Third Melbourne Cup Win in 2025?
The official Melbourne Cup barrier draw is only released a few days before the iconic handicap race takes place at Flemington Racecourse when final acceptances are taken on Victoria Derby Day. The capacity 24-starter Melbourne Cup field is announced on the Saturday before the race each year.
2025 Melbourne Cup Barrier Draw
The official Melbourne Cup 2025 barrier draw will be released live from Flemington Racecourse following the racing action on VRC Derby Day, Saturday November 1, 2025.
CLICK HERE FOR THE 2025 MELBOURNE CUP BARRIER DRAW STATISTICS
Melbourne Cup 2025 Results
| 14. Half Yours (8) J: Jamie Melham 53kg 15141 T: Tony & Calvin McEvoy | ||
| 20. Goodie Two Shoes (20) J: W M Lordan 51.5kg 1113x T: Joseph O'Brien | ||
| 7. Middle Earth (13) J: Ethan Brown 54.5kg 50903 T: Ciaron Maher | ||
| 21. River Of Stars (14) J: Beau Mertens 51.5kg x7802 T: Chris Waller | ||
| 23. Torranzino (18) J: Celine Gaudray 51kg 80821 T: Paul Preusker | ||
| 4. Vauban (2) J: Blake Shinn 56.5kg x3650 T: Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | ||
| 1. Al Riffa (19) J: Mark Zahra 59kg x4211 T: Joseph O'Brien | ||
| 9. Absurde (4) J: Kerrin McEvoy 53.5kg 2x3x7 T: Willie Mullins | ||
| 13. Changingoftheguard (24) J: Tim Clark 53kg 82106 T: Kris Lees | ||
| 8. Meydaan (22) J: James McDonald 54kg 05239 T: Simon & Ed Crisford | ||
| 17. Furthur (7) J: Michael Dee 52kg 52516 T: Andrew Balding | ||
| 3. Arapaho (15) J: Rachel King 56.5kg 36408 T: Bjorn Baker | ||
| 10. Flatten The Curve (17) J: Thore Hammer-Hansen 53.5kg 1411x T: Henk Grewe | ||
| 12. Smokin' Romans (11) J: Ben Melham 53.5kg 72948 T: Ciaron Maher | ||
| 22. Royal Supremacy (21) J: Robbie Dolan 51kg 11215 T: Ciaron Maher | ||
| 24. Valiant King (10) J: Jye McNeil 51kg 3x013 T: Chris Waller | ||
| 15. More Felons (23) J: Tommy Berry 53kg x0944 T: Chris Waller | ||
| 6. Presage Nocturne (9) J: Stephane Pasquier 55.5kg 13x34 T: Alessandro Botti | ||
| 18. Parchment Party (3) J: John R Velazquez 52kg 2311x T: William I Mott | ||
| 19. Athabascan (1) J: Declan Bates 51.5kg x0002 T: John O'Shea & Tom Charlton | ||
| 11. Land Legend (16) J: Joao Moreira 53.5kg 39500 T: Chris Waller | ||
| 5. Chevalier Rose (5) J: Damian Lane 55.5kg 70x0x T: Hisashi Shimizu | ||
| 2. Buckaroo (12) J: Craig Williams 57kg x3232 T: Chris Waller |
An exact value cannot be placed on drawing a good barrier, but some alleys are clearly better than others in regards to producing Melbourne Cup winners over the years.
Is the Melbourne Cup Barrier Draw Important?
Despite the many times the race has been run, there are still barriers that have never produced a winner as well as barriers that have only ever sent off a winner once.
When looking at the Melbourne Cup odds on a site like Ladbrokes, it pays to keep the effect of the Melbourne Cup barrier draw in mind. While the long distance of the race does reduce the importance of the starting barrier, it doesn’t hurt for your horse to start from one of the first 12 barriers.
Which Melbourne Cup Barriers are Best?
The most successful barriers leading up to the 2025 Melbourne Cup barrier draw are:
- Barrier 11 – 9 wins, last 2010
- Barrier 5 – 9 wins, last in 2024 (Knight’s Choice)
- Barrier 10 – 6 wins, last 2014
- Barrier 14 – 6 wins, last in 2005
- Barrier 8 – 5 wins, last in 2008
In the past decade barrier 5 has produced three Melbourne Cup winners with Green Moon (2012) and Fiorente (2013) going back-to-back from the gate before the upset 2024 success by Knight’s Choice in 2024.
From 2006 – 2016 barrier 10 has also produced two champions with Delta Blues (2006) and Protectionist (2014).
In 2019 Vow And Declare became the first Australian-bred Melbourne Cup winner since Shocking (2009) and won from barrier 21 of 24.
Knight’s Choice was the last Australian-bred champion from gate 5 in 2024.
The latest winning Melbourne Cup barrier was 5 (Knight’s Choice, 2024).
Which Melbourne Cup Barriers are Worst?
There have historically been a few awful Melbourne Cup barriers. The worst leading up to the 2025 Melbourne Cup barrier draw are:
- Barrier 18 – 1 win – Verry Elleegant became the first to win from the gate in 2021
- Barrier 7 – 2 wins, in 1924 and 2015
- Barrier 15 – 1 win, in 1973
Barrier 12 recorded a third win in 2020 with Twilight Payment, while Barriers 2 and 20 have 2 wins. Numbers beyond barrier 24 have not been included, as the number of starters is currently limited to 24 with no emergencies.
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