Trainer: Colin Hayes
Jockey: John Letts
Silks: Emerald Green, Royal Blue Sleeves, Red Cap, Emerald Green Spots

Englishman Robert Sangster, co-founder of the internationally famous Coolmore Stud, was in the 1980s was one of the world’s biggest racehorse owners as manager of the Swettenham Stud syndicate. He had already won the English Derby in 1975 with The Minstrel, but it was the Melbourne Cup win of his American-bred horse Beldale Ball that convinced him of the magic of Flemington on the First Tuesday in November. Sangster had sent Beldale Ball, after racing in England, to be prepared by Adelaide trainer Colin Hayes expressly for the 1980 Melbourne Cup. Hayes was at the top of his profession, but luck had previously eluded him in the Cup. It was the first time since Backwood (1924) that a northern hemisphere horse had won the Cup, albeit with an Australian trainer. Adelaide champion John Letts took the ride to give him his second Melbourne Cup win. Beldale Ball later stood at stud in Czechoslovakia.

Trainer: T.J (Tommy) Smith
Jockey: Peter Cook
Silks: Royal Blue And Green Stripes, Royal Blue Cap

T.J. Smith had been the premier trainer in Sydney every season since 1952–53, but it was 26 years for him between Melbourne Cup drinks. His previous winner had been Toparoa in 1955. Just A Dash, bred by Olympic equestrian Neale Lavis at his Strathallan Stud, Braidwood NSW, was the first racetrack winner for his sire, Whiskey Road. He was sold cheaply as a yearling to Wagga publican, Gary Towzell who later sold the horse after a good third in the AJC St Leger. Just A Dash entered the Smith stable and won the South Australian St Leger and the Adelaide Cup before his Melbourne Cup success. At Flemington he was ridden by Sydney jockey Peter Cook, son of Billy Cook who won the Cup in 1941 and 1945. It was the first Melbourne Cup in which Lloyd Williams was a part owner. In time he would set the record as the most successful owner in Cup history. 

Trainer: Geoff Murphy
Jockey: L. (Mick) Dittman
Silks: Royal Blue, Gold Armbands And Cap

Luck turned for Caulfield trainer Geoff Murphy when Gurner’s Lane won the 1982 Cup. Murphy had been the original trainer of Hyperno (1979 Cup) before the horse was switched to the stables of Bart Cummings just months before the race. Seventeen days before the 1982 Melbourne Cup, Gurner’s Lane won the Caulfield Cup and he went into the Melbourne Cup an 8/1 chance. Between him and destiny stood Kingston Town, one of Australia’s greatest ever racehorses. The two fought out the finish. Kingston Town seemingly just failed to last the 3200 metre distance. The speculation never ceased: had top jockey Malcolm Johnston misjudged his ride, taking off for the finishing line just too early? Johnston rejected the theory. Queensland jockey Mick Dittman rode Gurner’s Lane with his customary vigour to claim the prize. The horse took his name from a laneway behind Melbourne’s Australian Club. A syndicate of club members raced the winner. 

Trainer: Ewen ‘Snow’ Lupton
Jockey: Jim Cassidy
Silks: Royal Blue, White Crossed Sashes, Red Armbands, Light Blue Cap

Coming from last place in the running to first at the winning post is rare in Melbourne Cups. In 1983 this was done with such speed and finesse from so far back that for years afterwards a last-to-first in a race was dubbed ‘doing a Kiwi’. The leading New Zealand apprentice of his day, Jim Cassidy (20 at the time) teamed with trainer Snow Lupton for the horse’s first visit to Flemington. The team had used the same last-to-first tactics nine months earlier to win the Wellington Cup. Cassidy’s audacious riding career, with its highs and lows, continued in Australia until 2015 with more than 100 Group 1 race wins to his credit and a place in both the New Zealand and the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. His second Melbourne Cup victory came in 1997 on Might And Power when he went to the front early and led all the way home. 

Trainer: George M. Hanlon
Jockey: Peter Cook
Silks: Maroon, White Maltese Cross And Cap

The success of Black Knight in the Melbourne Cup was a personal and professional triumph for his owner, international businessman Robert Holmes à Court. He had bought the 1971 Cup winner Silver Knight as foundation stallion for his Heytesbury Stud near Perth, and the dam, Brenta, was the stud’s first broodmare. Trained in Victoria by George Hanlon, who already had two Melbourne Cup winners to his credit, Black Knight showed his class with a narrow second to Chagemar in a fast-run Geelong Cup. After a good third in the Dalgety (Hotham) Handicap, Black Knight turned the tables on Chagemar for an easy win in the Cup. Sydney’s Peter Cook scored his second Melbourne Cup win. With Holmes à Court absent in London on business, but tuned in to the broadcast, his wife Janet received the Cup trophy.

Trainer: John Meagher
Jockey: Pat Hyland
Silks: Navy Blue, White Armbands And Cap

History was made in 1985 when the race was commercially sponsored as the ‘Fosters Melbourne Cup’, with prize money lifted to $1 million. The Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, were special guests on the day, the Prince presenting the trophy to owners, Lloyd Williams and Dennis Gowing. As so often in the past few decades, the winner was New Zealand-bred, brought to Australia under trainer cousins Graeme and Len Rogerson and intended for a jumping career. Instead, he won four of his next seven starts on the flat, then took the 1984 Duke of Norfolk Stakes at Flemington over the Melbourne Cup course and distance. Later that year he was transferred to the stable of rising trainer John Meagher who nursed the horse through a long list of ailments to have him fit for the 1985 Cup. Also recovering from injury was jockey Pat Hyland who took the winning ride at the age of 43.

Trainer: Colin S. Hayes
Jockey: Michael Clarke
Silks: Royal Blue, White Epaulettes, Striped Cap

A precedent had been set when champion Adelaide trainer Colin Hayes prepared a tried northern hemisphere racehorse to win the 1980 Melbourne Cup. Six years later he repeated the achievement, with the American-bred At Talaq. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rahid Al Maktoum had paid US$800,000 for the colt at the 1982 Saratoga yearling sales and sent him to race in England. In 1984 At Talaq won the Grade 1 Grand Prix de Paris and was placed in the German and the Italian Derbys. The plan was then formulated to send him to Australia. Under Hayes, he ran a series of second placings in good races including the Caulfield Cup before winning the Mackinnon Stakes and then the Melbourne Cup, ridden by Hayes’s number one stable jockey, Michael Clarke. At Talaq remained in the country, running second to Bonecrusher in the 1987 Australian Cup, before embarking on a successful stud career.  

Trainer: Les J. Bridge
Jockey: Larry Olsen
Silks: Red, Green Sleeves

Kensei was New Zealand-bred, sired by US-bred Blarney Kiss who had previously sired 1983 Melbourne Cup winner, Kiwi. Kensei was bought cheaply at New Zealand yearling sales and became the first commercially syndicated horse to win the Melbourne Cup, in an ownership group of just six, promoted by Harry Lawton. Trained in Sydney first by former jockey Neville Voigt, then by Les Bridge, Kensei showed his ability with wins in the regional Grafton and Newcastle Cups and a good second in The Metropolitan ahead of his Melbourne Cup victory. For Queensland jockey Larry Olsen it was a miraculous comeback after a three-year retirement from the saddle. New Zealand mare Empire Rose arrived for a hit-and-run attempt at the race, finishing second, foreshadowing a successful return in 1988. One more piece of history: the Sydney based New Zealander Maree Lyndon rode Argonaut Style to become the first woman jockey to compete in a Melbourne Cup but finished second-last.

Trainer: Laurie Laxon
Jockey: Tony Allan
Silks: Yellow, Black Band, Red Striped Sleeves

After Empire Rose finished fifth in the 1986 Melbourne Cup behind At Talaq and then lost the 1987 Cup by less than half a length to Kensei, it seemed fitting that she should succeed at last. A huge mare who was so long that she had trouble fitting into the starting stalls, Empire Rose secured the 1988 Cup after winning the Mackinnon Stakes the Saturday before. By Sir Tristram, like Gurner’s Lane (1982) and Brew (2000), Empire Rose won the Cup by a half head from Natski. From a wide gate, New Zealand jockey Tony Allan was able to get the big mare across and give her the run of the race. Among other career highlights for Empire Rose were her win in the 1987 New Zealand Cup and a third place behind Almaarad in the 1989 Cox Plate. Trainer Laxon later moved from New Zealand to Singapore where for nine seasons he was premier trainer. 

Trainer: Lee Freedman
Jockey: Shane Dye
Silks: Pale Blue, Yellow Checks, Red Cap

While Bart Cummings by now had seven Melbourne Cups to his credit as trainer, a new rival emerged. Lee Freedman, 33 at the time, was the registered trainer of the winner, Tawrrific, but he acknowledged the support of his brothers Richard, Anthony and Michael. His late father, Tony, had trained horses in NSW and his great-grandfather W.H. ‘Midge’ McLachlan, a champion international jockey, had ridden three Melbourne Cup winners early in the century. New Zealand-bred Tawrrific (his name a spelling puzzle, a son of Tawfiq) showed promise as a stayer in good races in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in 1988–89 before winning the AJC St Leger and then the Melbourne Cup, beating his talented stablemate, Super Impose. Effervescent Sydney jockey Shane Dye took the winning ride after top Melbourne rider Darren Gauci opted for Super Impose.

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Darren Beadman
Silks: Yellow, Red Striped Sleeves And Cap

Kingston Rule was arguably the best-bred horse ever to win the Cup. He was certainly the fastest, and the record time of 3 minutes 16.3 seconds has stayed in the record books. He was Bart Cummings’s eighth winner as trainer and his first not to be a New Zealander. His owner-breeders, David and Helen Hains, had raced the champion dam, Rose of Kingston, winner of the VRC Oaks and AJC Derby, and sent her to the US to the great Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner. Kingston Rule, a handsome chestnut, was lightly raced in his career, winning the Moonee Valley Cup and second in the Dalgety (Hotham Handicap) ahead of his Melbourne Cup win. He retired to the stud in Victoria in 1991 producing many winners, the best Kensington Palace which won a VRC Oaks. Emerging champion jockey Darren Beadman won a second Melbourne Cup for Cummings in 1996 on Saintly.  

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Steven King
Silks: Green And Gold Diagonal Stripes, White Cap

In winning the Melbourne Cup, Let’s Elope became the eighth horse and only the second mare to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double, the eighth female to win the Melbourne Cup, and the ninth Cup winner for trainer Bart Cummings. Arriving in Australian as a 4YO in September after wins in New Zealand, Let’s Elope joined the Cummings stable and became Melbourne’s boom horse in the spring. She won the Turnbull Stakes, Caulfield Cup and Mackinnon Stakes before her victory in the Cup. Winning jockey, Steven King, was 23 when he rode the winner and established himself as one of Melbourne’s best jockeys. For a fifth time, Cummings had trained the Cup quinella. In a unique twist, Shane Dye who rode the runner-up, Shiva’s Revenge, protested (unsuccessfully) against the stablemate on the grounds of interference. Let’s Elope went on to win the 1992 Australian Cup. She was exported to race in the USA, three times placed in Grade 1 races, before later returning to the stud in Australia, where she produced Adelaide Cup winner, Outback Joe. 

Trainer: Lee Freedman
Jockey: Greg Hall
Silks: Red, Purple Sash, White Sleeves, Purple Cap

Subzero was a good NSW-bred grey gelding whose biggest wins were the South Australian Derby and the Adelaide Cup ahead of his victory on a wet track in the 1992 Melbourne Cup. Yet he became one of the best-loved Melbourne Cup winners of his era, chiefly because of his career after retirement from racing. As his coat turned white, he first became a clerk of the course’s mount for Graeme Salisbury who then trained him for a public career. ‘Subbie’ became a familiar figure across community activities, including the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour, visiting schools and hospitals, even promoting Australian horse racing internationally. His death from old age in 2020 was widely mourned. In his Cup win he was skilfully ridden by top jockey Greg Hall to beat two outstanding New Zealanders, Veandercross and Castletown. It was trainer Lee Freedman’s second of five Melbourne Cup wins.   

Trainer: Dermot Weld
Jockey: Michael Kinane
Silks: Yellow, Royal Blue Epaulettes, Star Cap

It has been called the ‘internationalisation of the Melbourne Cup’. Imported horses, beyond New Zealand, had won earlier Cups, but this was the first time that horses from the northern hemisphere, together with their trainers and riders, had flown in just to contest the race. Vintage Crop, trained by Dermot Weld and ridden by Michael Kinane, came to Melbourne in company with England’s Drum Taps, ridden by Frankie Dettori. Vintage Crop had been bred in England, by American breeders. His previous wins included England’s Cesarewitch Handicap, the Irish St Leger and the Curragh Cup. Modified quarantine regulations in Australia and faster flights had made the concept possible, but to win was a great achievement. Drum Taps weakened to finish midfield. Weld returned with Vintage Crop in 1995 who ran third to Doriemus, and the trainer won the Cup again with Media Puzzle in 2002. Kinane’s riding career saw him 13 times Irish champion jockey. He won many top international races including the English Derby three times.    

Trainer: David A. Hayes
Jockey: Wayne Harris
Silks: Royal Blue, White Epaulettes, Striped Cap

Following the pattern he set with At Talaq in 1986, owner Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum sent the accomplished racehorse Jeune from England to be acclimatised in Australia and to be locally trained with the Melbourne Cup in mind. English-bred Jeune had already won black type races, notably the Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot, trained by Geoff Wragg. In Australia the horse was trained by David Hayes who had just taken over the training operation of his father, Colin Hayes, mentor of At Talaq. By spring 1994, Jeune was competing near his best, including winning the Group 1 Underwoood Stakes, before winning the Melbourne Cup on a soft track. Sydney jockey Wayne Harris had overcome many physical setbacks in his career, and he won the race with a skilful ride beating regular rival Paris Lane. Jeune remained in Australia, maintaining his good form, voted Horse of the Year 1994–95, before being retired to the stud. 

Trainer: Lee Freedman
Jockey: Damien Oliver
Silks: Dark Blue, Pink Hoops, Quartered Cap

The New Zealand-bred gelding Doriemus became the ninth horse to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double. He first raced in New Zealand before being sold to an Australian partnership of owners. He showed promise as a 3YO and later in 1994 he placed third in the Sandown Cup. The following spring, he showed consistent improvement to win the Caulfield Cup. Suited by wet conditions and an outside barrier draw, he then won the Melbourne Cup, becoming the third winner of the race to be trained by Lee Freedman. Victoria Derby winner Nothin’ Leica Dane finished second, 1993 winner Vintage Crop third. It was the first Cup win for rising champion jockey Damien Oliver, 23 at the time, who had recently relocated to Melbourne from Western Australia. Doriemus came so close to replicating his 1995 triumph with second placings in both Cups in 1997 to Might and Power.

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Darren Beadman
Silks: Black, White Checks, Yellow Sleeves, Checked Cap

Saintly became Bart Cumming’s tenth winner of a Melbourne Cup, but this one differed from all the rest. For the first time this was an Australian-bred horse, and Cummings was the official breeder. He was also part-owner with Dato Tan Chin Nam who had raced Think Big, winner of the 1974 and 1975 Cups. Saintly helped Cummings recover from serious financial reverses arising from a failed syndication enterprise earlier in the decade. His horse was a true champion, quickly dubbed the ‘horse from heaven’. Saintly’s wins including the 1996 Australian Cup and Cox Plate, and he was a close runner-up in several big races to regular rival, Octagonal. It was Sydney champion jockey Darren Beadman’s second Cup win, both of them for Cummings. To mark Bart’s tenth Cup victory, VRC Chairman Peter Armytage presented the trainer with a full-size version of the Melbourne Cup trophy. Only twice in 23 career starts was Saintly unplaced.

Trainer: Jack Denham
Jockey: Jim Cassidy
Silks: White, Grey Sash, Pink Striped Sleeves, Grey Cap

Might And Power’s victory over Doriemus by the absolute narrowest of margins—a short half head—was the achievement of a great racehorse. Jockey Jim Cassidy, who in 1983 had ridden New Zealand horse Kiwi to victory from the tail of the field, allowed Might And Power to lead throughout the race. Using similar tactics, the horse had blitzed the field to win his previous start, the Caulfield Cup, by many lengths. In the Melbourne Cup, with 200 metres to run, the 1995 winner Doriemus, under the hard riding of Greg Hall, was slowly but surely pegging Might And Power back. On the line it was so close that Hall thought he had won. The photo finish proved otherwise. Might And Power was a New Zealand-bred gelding prepared by veteran Sydney trainer Jack Denman. He went on to win seven more Group 1 races including the 1998 Cox Plate.

Trainer: Brian Jenkins
Jockey: Chris Munce
Silks: Dark Green, Gold Vee, Cuffs And Pom Pom

The Auckland Cup was first run in 1874 and many champions had won the 3200 metre race, but Jezabeel became the first to win the Auckland–Melbourne Cup double, in 1998. Her trainer and part-owner, Brian Jenkins, came from a racing family and trained the mare at Cambridge on the North Island. She won her first two starts as a 2YO including the Champagne Stakes at Ellerslie and had one unsuccessful foray to Victoria as a 3YO filly. By five years she was showing promise as a stayer and she returned to Melbourne with Jenkins in the winter of 1998 with the Melbourne Cup as her target. Unlucky in the Caulfield Cup, where she finished sixth, she defeated fellow New Zealand mare Champagne in the Melbourne Cup, where she was ridden by Queensland jockey, Chris Munce. The champion Irish-bred English stayer Persian Punch finished third, as he did again in 2001.   

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: John Marshall
Silks: Turquoise, White Hoops

In the long history of the Melbourne Cup, Rogan Josh was just the second winner to have been bred in Western Australia, after Black Knight (1984). Four wins in his first five starts were at regional Bunbury when he was trained by Marcus Forrest who with his father, Tom, was the breeder. Transferred to the Perth stables of Colin Webster, his next wins included the Pinjarra and Bunbury Cups before his close second placing in the Perth Cup on New Year’s Day 1999. By mid-year he went to the Melbourne stables of Bart Cummings. Consistent form propelled him to favouritism for the Melbourne Cup where he was ridden by West Australian-born jockey John Marshall, late in his distinguished riding career. It was the eleventh Cup win for Cummings. Owner Wendy Green, Tom Forrest’s daughter, was a schoolteacher in Darwin and famously made the journey to Melbourne by car, and returned home with the trophy in the boot, stopping to share her triumph with well-wishers along the way.