Melbourne Cup Carnival - The winners

The recently completed Melbourne Cup carnival once again showcased the diversity of successful bloodlines in the Australian thoroughbred industry, with the progeny of 29 different stallions successful over the 37 races held across the four days.

Written Tycoon, now stationed at Arrowfield Stud, was the most numerically successful stallion through the week with three winners, all at Group 3 level with the wins of Rich Hips and Finance Tycoon on Melbourne Cup day followed up with Written Beauty's success in the G1 Red Roses S. on Thursday.

Five stallions had two winners at Flemington across the week, Dundeel (NZ), Exceed And Excel, Pierro, Tavistock (NZ) and Toronado (Ire). Darley's Exceed And Excel was the only stallion to have multiple Group 1 winners in G1 Coolmore Stud S. victory September Run and G1 Darley Sprint Classic hero Bivouac. Swettenham Stud's Toronado and departed Cambridge Stud stallion Tavistock also both had multiple stakes winners.

The diversity of bloodlines also flowed to the broodmare sires of those 37 winners, with 29 different stallions also represented. The influential Zabeel (NZ) had the most success with the progeny of his mares with four winners in total, including the G1 Victoria Derby winner Johnny Get Angry (NZ), who became the fourth Group 1 winner by Tavistock out of a Zabeel mare.

More Than Ready (USA) was represented as the broodmare sire of three winners across the week, most notably by Bivouac, while Danehill Dancer (Ire) mares also produced three winners, all at stakes level. Encosta De Lago, currently leading the Australian Broodmares Sires table, had two winners across the carnival at Flemington.

Table: Most wins at the Melbourne Cup Carnival by sire

Trainers and jockeys

The most successful stable across the week was the new look Lindsay Park outfit of Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes, who had five overall, including their first Group 1 winner as a partnership with Personal (Fastnet Rock). Chris Waller had three winners, all on the first day, including a Group 1 double with September Run and Yulong Prince (SAF) (Gimmethegreenlight).

Other trainers to have multiple winners across the week were Archie Alexander, James Cummings, Phillip Stokes, Team Hawkes, Richard and Chantelle Jolly and John O'Shea.

A further 17 stables had one winner for the week, meaning that there were 26 individual trainers who got horses in the winner's circle.

The spread of winning jockeys was a little more concentrated, with 19 of them in all. Melbourne Cup winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy was joined by Craig Williams and Hugh Bowman with four wins apiece, while Damien Oliver, Damian Lane, William Pike, Declan Bates, Daniel Stackhouse, Jye McNeil, Michael Poy, Luke Currie and Luke Nolen all rode two winners apiece.

Table: Winning jockeys at the Melbourne Cup Carnival

Breeders and vendors

Breaking down the breeders of the 37 individual winners sees only a couple of names feature twice. Greg Perry bred the Derby winner Johnny Get Angry through his Greenwich Stud, but also had an involvement in the partnership that bred both Exhilarates (Snitzel) and Outrageous (All Too Hard).

Gerry Harvey was also part of the group who bred Outrageous and is also the breeder of Do You Reckon (So You Think {NZ}). The remaining 33 winners were bred by different entities.

Nearly 65 per cent of Flemington winners across the week, 24 in all, were offered through an Australian or New Zealand Yearling Sale. The remainder were either homebred or privately sold.

The most successful vendor from those horses sold through the yearling sales was Vinery Stud, who offered both Exhilarates and Outrageous. There were 22 other vendors who had their graduates greet the judge first across those 37 races.

The average price of those 23 horses as yearlings in Australasia was $196,957. Oaks winner Personal was the most expensive of them at $640,000, while the least expensive buys were Johnny Get Angry and Tralee Rose (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), who were both NZ$50,000.

Sourcing the winners

That latter pair were two of the four winning graduates from the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale at Karaka for the week.

Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale had seven winners across the four days of racing, including G1 Empire Rose S. winner Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt).

Inglis' Melbourne Premier Sale had four winning graduates, among them the Coolmore Stud S. winner September Run, while the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale had two winning graduates for the week, including Group 1 winner Personal, and the Inglis Classic Sale three winning graduates.

Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale had two winning graduates, while the National Yearling Sale, run by the same company, had one.

The honour for the most successful buyer was split between Paul Moroney Bloodstock and Richard and Chantelle Jolly with two Flemington Cup week winners sourced from the yearling sales apiece.

Table: Winning sale graduates at the Melbourne Cup Carnival