The race that stops a nation produced a piece of history on Tuesday: one trainer, three horses, and the first three places in the Melbourne Cup.
Key Points
- Point of Law, ridden by Ethan Brown, won the 2026 Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Tuesday 3 November, the $10 million feature over 3,200 metres.
- Zahrann finished second and Juja Kibo third — all three trained by Ciaron Maher, the first trainer in the race’s 166-year history to train the first three place-getters.
- It was Brown’s first Melbourne Cup win, in only Point of Law’s sixth career start and second race on Australian soil.
- The winner has now earned $5,910,000 from two Australian starts; the track was rated Soft 5 after 7.4mm of rain in 24 hours.
A trifecta nobody had ever trained
Trainers dream of winning the Melbourne Cup once. Ciaron Maher has now, in effect, won it three times in a single afternoon — at least in the record books, where the first three finishers will all carry his name. No trainer in the 166-year history of the race had previously swept the podium, and the feat instantly joins the great training performances in Australian racing history.
Point of Law led the Maher trio home, with Zahrann second and Juja Kibo third. Dividends told the story of an upset-flavoured result: the winner paid $7.80 for the win and $3.10 for a place, with Zahrann at $11.00 and Juja Kibo at $4.40. Sons and Lovers was fourth and Royal Supremacy fifth.
A star in only six starts
For jockey Ethan Brown, it was a first Melbourne Cup — the race every Australian rider grows up dreaming about — and it came aboard a horse still at the start of its career. Point of Law was having only its sixth race start, and its second in Australia, yet it handled the 3,200-metre test and a rain-softened track with the composure of a seasoned stayer.
The prize money underlines how quickly the horse has arrived: $5,910,000 banked from just two Australian starts. In a sport where owners wait years for a return, Point of Law has paid for itself several times over in a single spring.
Why the conditions mattered
The track was rated Soft 5 after 7.4 millimetres of rain fell at Flemington in the 24 hours before the race — soft enough to test stamina, but not the heavy ground that can turn the Cup into a lottery. That the Maher trio filled the placings on such a surface speaks to preparation as much as talent: three horses, all ready for the same demanding test, on the same day.
What happens next
Point of Law now joins the roll of honour of Australia’s greatest race, and Maher’s trifecta will be the benchmark every future Cup training feat is measured against. For Brown, the win changes a career; for Maher, it cements a place in the history of the race he has just, uniquely, swept.
Related coverage: Sports · Australian racing · Melbourne Cup history
Sources
- Fox Sports Australia — Fox Sports Australia
- Sunday Guardian Live — Sunday Guardian Live