{"id":942218,"date":"2026-10-27T02:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T02:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942218\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T02:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T02:34:12","slug":"melbourne-cup-2026-news-final-field-and-order-of-entry-ciaron-maher-vs-josh-obrien-runners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942218\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Cup 2026 news, final field and order of entry, Ciaron Maher vs Josh O\u2019Brien runners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Melbourne Cup<\/a> is shaping as a match race between one of Australia\u2019s leading trainers, and an overseas raider who has done it twice before.<\/p>\n

Ciaron Maher is largely flying the flag for the Aussies and looks set to saddle up eight runners in the $10 million Flemington feature race next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Horse trainers Joseph O\u2019Brien and Ciaron Maher dominate the 2026 Melbourne Cup field.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But champion Irish horseman Joseph O\u2019Brien will prepare five runners in the hope of taking the coveted Cup home for a third time.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien won the great race in 2017 (Rekindling) and 2020 (Twilight Payment) and initially nominated a total of 11 horses for this year\u2019s 3200m contest.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, it looks like O\u2019Brien will be represented in the race by Defiantly, Sons And Lovers, Trustyourinstinct, Goodie Two Shoes, and James J Braddock.<\/p>\n

The final field of 24 runners will be confirmed on Saturday following the Victoria Derby.<\/p>\n

Maher is O\u2019Brien\u2019s biggest threat to winning the Cup, with the leading Aussie trainer likely to have Mr Monaco, Shockletz, Point Of Law, Middle Earth, Royal Supremacy, Saint George, and Zahrann in the final field. Land Legend is sitting on the bubble and may yet also squeeze in, making it a possible eight runners for the Maher stable.<\/p>\n

Maher won the Melbourne Cup in 2022 with Gold Trip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old is poised to break the record set by trainer Rob Hickmott in 2013, who saddled up six horses in that year\u2019s race that stops the nation.<\/p>\n

Between he and O\u2019Brien, the two men look like having 13 runners in the field – more than half.<\/p>\n

Geelong Cup winner Point Of Law<\/a> ($6.50) is the Melbourne Cup favourite as of Monday, while Juja Kibo ($15) cemented his spot in the field with victory in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey seem to be coming together at the right time,\u201d Maher said over the weekend of his Melbourne Cup hopefuls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going well, they\u2019re in their right races and the team are doing a great job… I\u2019m very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cox Plate place getters Aeliana (left) and Birdman (middle) won\u2019t contest the Melbourne Cup.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Top Sydney trainer Chris Waller has all but ruled out one of his top chances in this year\u2019s Melbourne Cup.<\/p>\n

Aeliana is still seventh in the order of entry as of Monday, but Waller says he will withdraw her from the field after running a brave third in Saturday\u2019s Cox Plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very unlikely we will run in the Melbourne Cup,\u201d Waller told Big Sports Breakfast radio.<\/p>\n

“I think she is still maturing, she is still not a big robust horse yet, and she might never be.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut while she is still in that phase where she is still probably filling out and growing I would be reluctant to run in a Melbourne Cup with 58kg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waller is also poised to withdraw Cox Plate runner-up Birdman in favour of running him at Flemington later during Cup week.<\/p>\n

He will still be represented in the Melbourne Cup by Soul Of Spain ($51) and Asterix ($101).<\/p>\n

Possible Melbourne Cup starting field<\/p>\n

Defiantly (Joseph O\u2019Brien), Mr Monaco (Ciaron Maher), Zakouma (Grahame Begg), Shockletz (Ciaron Maher), Point Of Law (Ciaron Maher), Juja Kibo (Ciaron Maher), Sons And Lovers (Joseph O\u2019Brien), Stinger Glass (Yasuo Tomomichi), Trustyourinstinct (Joseph O\u2019Brien), Goodie Two Shoes (Joseph O\u2019Brien), Middle Earth (Ciaron Maher), James J Braddock (Joseph O\u2019Brien), Vauban (Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott), Knight\u2019s Choice (John Symons and Sheila Laxon), Strictly Business (Thomas Carberry), Royal Supremacy (Ciaron Maher), Enfjaar (Roger Varian), Wine Dark Sea (Harry Charlton), Saint George (Ciaron Maher), Asterix (Chris Waller), Soul Of Spain (Chris Waller), Onesmoothoperator (Tim Fitzsimmons), Zahrann (Ciaron Maher), Hopewell Rock (George Boughey)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Melbourne Cup is shaping as a match race between one of Australia\u2019s leading trainers, and an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":["post-942218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}