The race has become one ofAustralia's richestThoroughbred horse races. The race is held annually on the third Saturday in October, the third day and final day of the Caulfield Carnival. Performances in the Caulfield Cup are one of the possible qualification methods for a run in theMelbourne Cup which is held 17 days later.
1932 winner –Rogilla George Robinson1906 & 1907 winner –Poseidon1930 winner –Amounis Harold Jones1931 winner – Denis Boy Andy Knox1912 & 1914 winner – Uncle Sam1920 winner –Eurythmic1915 winner – Lavendo
The field is limited to 18 starters with four emergency entries which is decided by a ballot system. The prize money, wins and placings in lead up races are among the major factors that determine the eligibility of a horse.Automatic entry is awarded to winners of theToorak Handicap,Herbert Power Stakes and the Mornington Cup.[3]
JockeyScobie Breasley rode the winner of four consecutive Caulfield Cups from 1942 to 1945. This included a division of the 1943 race, which was run in two divisions. He also holds the record for most wins by a jockey of the race - five wins.[3]
2014 Caulfield Cup winnerAdmire Rakti died after his run in the Melbourne Cup from natural causes.[6]
Horses trained outside Australia andNew Zealand have been participating in the race since 1998. Six have won the race. They are Taufan's Melody (1998) for British trainerLady Herries,All the Good (2008) and Best Solution (2018) forSaeed bin Suroor of theGodolphin stables,Dunaden (2012) for French trainer Mikel Delzangles, Admire Rakti (2014) for Japanese trainer Tomoyuki Umeda and Mer De Glace (2019) for Japanese trainer Hisashi Shimizu.
The worst race fall in Australian history occurred at the 1885 Caulfield Cup when 15 of the 44 horses competing fell as they turned onto the straight, resulting in the death of 25-year-old jockey Donald Nicolson.[7]
In 2007, Maldivian and Eskimo Queen were late scratchings. Maldivian, shortest price favourite for 41 years, misbehaved and injured himself in the starting stalls, frightening second priced favourite Eskimo Queen who for a time was trapped beneath the stalls.[8][9] The race started almost nine minutes late.
In March 2015, BMW Australia and the Melbourne Racing Club announced a reunion in partnership, effective as of August 1, 2015[53] after the eight-year partnership ended in 2014.