Every Melbourne Cup winner since 2000: Sheila Laxon creates rare slice of history with Knight's Choice
Updated . First published
Every Cup winner since 2000
Knight's Choice produced one of the biggest upsets in Melbourne Cup history, saluting at massive odds for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan in front of a packed house at Flemington.
The victory gave Sheila Laxon her second win in the great race from two attempts.
Wide World of Sports looks back on every horse to have won the iconic event since the year 2000.
Knight's Choice - 2024
Knight's Choice became the latest roughie to win the Melbourne Cup, holding on by a narrow margin from Warp Speed.
The victory for jockey Robbie Dolan came in his Cup debut - an incredible achievement - while it was the second time trainer Sheila Laxon had tasted success in the country's biggest race.
In fact, Laxon - who was at the helm with Ethereal in 2001, who paid $9 with bookies - has only ever trained two runners in the Cup and has a perfect strike rate.
She was also the first female trainer to win the Cup and is now the only woman to achieve the feat on two occasions.
Knight's Choice paid $81 with the bookies and just a year prior to his win, was racing over a mile in the Golden Eagle, completing an insane 12-month turnaround.
Without A Fight - 2023
Jockey Mark Zahra clinched his second straight Melbourne Cup by steering home Without A Fight in the great race, a fortnight after also riding it to victory in the Caulfield Cup.
Without A Fight became the first runner since 2001 to celebrate the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double in the same spring.
It was a bold call by Zahra to jump off his 2022 winner Gold Trip, opting instead to ride the Anthony and Sam Freedman runner in the 2023 edition of the Melbourne Cup, but it paid dividends.
"The horse is a freak," Zahra said of his 2023 winner after the race.
Gold Trip - 2022
The six-year-old French horse carried the top weight in the Melbourne Cup a fortnight after running an unlucky second placing in the Caulfield Cup.
Gold Trip paid $18 for the win and had to carry 57.5kg to victory - the heaviest winner since Makybe Diva's 58kg in her third straight victory 16 years earlier.
He pushed past hot Melbourne Cup favourite Deauville Legend in the straight, taking the lead with about 250 metres to run and managed to hold on under jockey Mark Zahra.
Verry Elleegant - 2021
Verry Elleegant made Melbourne Cup history by becoming the first runner to win from barrier 18.
The barrier was considered a cursed draw, but the curse was finally broken when the mighty mare romped to victory in 2021.
Storming home to beat hot favourites Incentivise and Spanish Mission, the six-year-old mare also became the first of her sex to win The Great Race since Makybe Diva won three in succession between 2003 and 2005.
Shockingly, Verry Elleegant died just over two years later giving birth to her first foal in Europe. READ MORE HERE
Brae Sokolski, part-owner of Verry Elleegant, was attending his 30-year school reunion over the weekend when he was told the news.
"I was excited, because I assumed it was a call to tell me there had been a healthy foal," Sokolski told SEN radio after news of the horse's death.
"I could tell straight away from the tone of his voice we were in trouble. She really did feel like part of the family. I was looking forward to not just this foal, but the generations ahead for her progeny, and the legacy that you get from breeding with a champion.
"Unfortunately now that's all lost."
After winning the Cup in 2021, Sokolski had said, "I'm lost for words. That's the most humbling moment of my life."
Twilight Payment - 2020
An eerie Melbourne Cup with no crowds allowed at Flemington, the first amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The race itself was somewhat strange, too, with Irish raider Twilight Payment dictating the tempo from start to finish and holding off Tiger Moth and Prince Of Arran. It was the first winner since Might And Power in 1997 to lead the two miles and win.
Twilight Payment returns to contest the 2021 event on Tuesday, this time carrying the top weight of 58kg.
Vow And Declare - 2019
It was a victory for Australia when Vow And Declare - one of only two locally-bred horses competing in the 24-horse field that year - clinched victory in a controversial finish.
It was the first Melbourne Cup win for popular Aussie jockey Craig Williams, too, in a result that had every horse lover and punter from Down Under rejoicing, having staved off the 22 foreign raiders.
Victorian trainer Danny O'Brien was full of praise for then-42-year-old Williams after the race. "I feel incredibly blessed to have a horse good enough to be in it and then for him to be ridden so beautifully by Craig," O'Brien said.
Cross Counter - 2018
The Godolphin stable finally tasted Melbourne Cup success when Kerrin McEvoy piloted Cross Counter to victory in 2018.
McEvoy, who carried just 51kg, won the race for the third time, defying the heavy conditions following heavy morning rain.
One of the favourites, the Aidan O'Brien-trained The CliffsofMoher, broke down early in the race and had to be euthanised.
Rekindling - 2017
Rekindling became the first northern hemisphere three-year-old to win the Melbourne Cup in 2017.
Trained by 24-year-old Joseph O'Brien, Rekindling gave Corey Brown a second victory in the race, after he rode Shocking in 2009.
O'Brien's father, Aidan, trained the second placed finisher, Johannes Vermeer.
Almandin - 2016
A record fifth Melbourne Cup win for owner Lloyd Williams as Almandin, ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, wore down Heartbreak City in the closing stages.
It was a second Cup win for McEvoy, 16 years after he'd piloted Brew to victory in 2000.
"I said when I got off, you win one, you want to win another one," McEvoy said.
"I am very lucky to be on this horse.
"He was there the whole way, travelled great, what a buzz."
