Melbourne Cup by the pedigree page – 23 sires represented, the most this century

Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup will have the most diverse sire representation of any field this century, with 23 stallions represented among its 24 runners — seven more than just two years ago.

Make Believe, the French 2000 Guineas and Prix de la Forêt winner standing at Ballylinch Stud, is the only stallion with two runners, Royal Supremacy and Kizlyar.

Two years ago, the 2024 field was drawn from 16 sires. Five of them had more than one runner: Almanzor had four, Galileo three, and Fastnet Rock, Roaring Lion and Sea The Stars two each. None had sired a Cup winner.

That changed when Knight’s Choice won that year. Extreme Choice is now the only sire in the 2026 field with a Melbourne Cup winner, and the only Australian-bred sire of a Cup winner this century.

Extreme Choice won the Blue Diamond Stakes and the Moir Stakes, and his stud career has been built on speed. His career totals stand at 20 stakes winners from 171 runners, or 11.7 per cent.

Frankel, represented by Point Of Law, has the strongest Cup record among the major European sires in the race. Soulcombe ran second in 2023, and Master Of Reality was placed fourth after a protest in 2019.

Fastnet Rock and Roaring Lion both return off last year’s placings. Goodie Two Shoes was second to Half Yours, Fastnet Rock’s best Cup result, and Middle Earth was third, the best for the late Roaring Lion, whose Caulfield Cup quinella runners do not line up on Tuesday.

It is the first time since 2018 that the first two home from that traditional lead-up race haven’t fronted up at Flemington.

The damsire list is almost as varied as the sire list, with 21 different broodmare sires among the 24 runners. Galileo leads with three: Middle Earth, Enfjaar and Goodie Two Shoes. Sea The Stars has two, Wine Dark Sea and Mr Monaco.

As a sire, Galileo had 39 Melbourne Cup runners without a winner, including three seconds and two thirds, according to The Straight‘s analysis of his Cup record. Both of last year’s minor placegetters, Goodie Two Shoes and Middle Earth, are out of Galileo mares.

Shockletz is the runner with the strongest historical angle. She is by Shocking, the 2009 Melbourne Cup winner, and if she wins Shocking will be the first Cup winner to sire a Cup winner since Silver Knight, the 1971 winner, whose son Black Knight won in 1984.

The result has occurred only a handful of times. Grand Flaneur, the 1880 winner, sired Bravo (1889) and Patron (1894), and Spearfelt, the 1926 winner, sired Dark Felt (1943).

Shocking’s stud record at Rich Hill includes six Group 1 winners and 27 stakes winners from 443 runners, a 6.09 per cent strike rate. His best Cup result as a sire so far is Surprise Baby’s fifth in 2019.

Laurence Eales of Eales Racing bred Shockletz, raced Shocking and still holds a share in the stallion.

Shocking and Shocklet’s dam Zelt are both out of Danehill mares, so Shockletz is inbred 3 × 3 to Danehill through two daughters. Roberto appears on both sides of her pedigree, through Red Ransom in the dam and through Don Roberto, Shocking’s second damsire.

She is one of only three mares in the race, alogn with Strictly Business and Goodie Two Shoes.

In all, eight stallions have their first Melbourne Cup runners: Crowded House, Ulysses, Study Of Man, Phoenix Of Spain, Night Of Thunder, New Bay, Grunt and Belardo.

Only two of the 23 represented stallions are currently active in Australia: Yulong’s Grunt and Newgate’s Extreme Choice.

Crowded House, Fastnet Rock, So You Think, Churchill, Lope de Vega, Night Of Thunder and Territories have all stood in Australia at some point, but either no longer shuttle or are no longer alive.

So You Think is the only other of those represented stallions aside from Shocking to contest the Melbourne Cup, having run third in the 2010 edition, a race Shocking ran 18th in.