From punters ripping up a metropolitan racecourse through to Jamie Melham’s history-making Cups double, the 2025 Melbourne Spring Carnival has had it all.

The big names were there again – red-hot rider Mark Zahra and elite trainers Ciaron Maher and Chris Waller among them – but not all the names were familiar and not all the spring campaigns traditional ones.

Filly Strictly Business broke the mould for staying fillies by following her first-up maiden win with a G2 Wakeful Stakes (2000m) placing and G1 VRC Oaks (2500m) victory, all in the space of 13 days for small Ballarat-based trainer Thomas Carberry.

The week at Caulfield delivered memorable results, from Melham’s first major in the Caulfield Cup to Autumn Boy’s dominant Caulfield Guineas victory.

Then we were off to the final Cox Plate on the current Moonee Valley layout, where punters lent a hand to demolishers by getting started on the job as trophy hunter snapped up anything that wasn’t nailed down. And even then.

The four days at Flemington were again the jewel in the crown, with Melham and the McEvoys delivering a most-popular win for punters and enthusiasts in the first $10 million Melbourne Cup with the only Australian-bred horse.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights, from the left-fielders to the simply glorious.

THE VALLEY TORN APART IN EXCESS

There was no chance the old Moonee Valley course was simply going to drift off into history, and for some, they’ll have a constant reminder of it after the track and surroundings were ravaged by trophy hunters following the running of the Cox Plate.

After an intoxicating day on and off the track, members of the crowd went searching high and low for some memorabilia to take home following the running of the final Cox Plate on the historic layout.

Some of the lads got a bit overexcited and went for things way too big, such as huge sections of the running rail, while the ageing Valley turf was dug up and claimed by others. The roses were picked and bricks and mortar lifted among an assortment of weird and wonderful trophies taken.

Some 142 years after Moonee Valley was established, the course is being torn apart (what’s left of it) and the track (ditto) ripped up, with a view to establishing an entirely new course and facilities on the site to be ready for spring 2027.

WATCH: Via Sistina’s amazing Cox Plate win

ZAHRA’S DERBY DAY FOUR-TIMER

“You forget what it feels like to lose!” Only someone who pulls off a straight four-timer of two G1s and two G2s on Victoria Derby Day can get away with a quote like that.

That was Zahra’s immediate observation to Racing.com in a post-race interview after his run of four wins came to an end with a second placing aboard Leica Lucy in the G1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m).

In the space of two hours, Zahra had won the G2 Wakeful Stakes aboard Getta Good Feeling ($1.60), the G2 Damien Oliver on Warnie ($5), the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes on Tentyris ($2.90) and the G1 Victoria Derby on Observer ($2.45).

Zahra ended the four-day Cup Carnival as the clear Ron Hutchinson Medal winner for champion rider with eight wins and five placings from 23 rides. His nearest rivals – Melham, Damian Lane and James McDonald – finished with three winners each.

The leading trainer was Maher with five wins, ahead of Anthony and Sam Freedman and Waller on three wins apiece.

WATCH: Observer’s Victoria Derby victory

ST JEAN WHO?

Half Yours has burst onto the scene as one of racing’s most promising horses, with his Cups doubles success also dragging his previously little-known sire into the spotlight with him.

At the end of the Flemington Carnival, the Australasian sires’ table has multiple classic winner The Autumn Sun – sire of the likes of unbeaten mare Autumn Glow and Caulfield Guineas winner Autumn Boy – ahead narrowly from Via Sistina’s recently deceased, world-famous shuttle sire Fastnet Rock. Third place, however, is a bit harder to pick.

1. The Autumn Sun – 96 runners for $10.64 million in prizemoney;

2. Fastnet Rock – 56 runners for $10.35m; and

3. St Jean – Five runners for $8.961m.

Across his five seasons at stud, The Autumn Sun already has 460 live foals and has served more than 100 mares each season. For St Jean, his eight seasons at stud in Victoria have yielded just 67 live foals, of which just 28 have been named so far.

One of those is Half Yours.

St Jean’s basement $3300 fee for the past few seasons goes to $11,000 next spring.

WATCH: Half Yours’ Caulfield Cup triumph

MELHAM MAGIC AT THE DOUBLE

A full decade on from Michelle Payne’s ground-breaking Melbourne Cup win for female riders, Melham took it to another level with her Cups double aboard Half Yours. Both were faultless and – especially at Flemington – highly daring rides on the biggest stages of all.

The link to the late Colin McKenna – he bred Half Yours – made her achievements all that more special for Melham, who was devastated by the loss of her friend and mentor last spring.

The G1 wins at Caulfield and Flemington took her career tally to 19, just three behind her husband Ben.

WATCH: Half Yours’ Melbourne Cup win

STRICTLY AN OAKS FAIRYTALE

VRC Oaks winner Strictly Business poked fun at the expression ‘meteoric rise’ this spring when she went from maiden winner to G1 Oaks winner in the space of 13 days to give her unheralded trainer Carberry a career highlight he thoroughly deserved.

After a setback in her spring preparation following one unplaced autumn run, Strictly Business did not get going until October 24, when she steamed home to win her maiden on her home track at Ballarat.

It was then immediately into the deep end as eight days later she stepped up and ran a superb second placing in the G2 Wakeful Stakes (2000m), before her Thursday heroics five days later in the G1 Oaks (2500m).

The G1 classic winner came from seemingly nowhere. By Yulong stallion Grunt, who stood in her season for $13,750, she was out of an unremarkable Uncle Mo mare, Tivoli Lass.

Martin Falvey, the owner and breeder of Strictly Business, became a major part-owner of Tivoli Lass in 2020 after a foal-share agreement had expired and Falvey put in a winning $600 bid to secure her.

After three years, a few of her owners wanted out and so Falvey again bought up the shares for $600. She is currently in foal to Galileo stallion Churchill.

WATCH: Strictly Business’ Oaks victory

VICS BREED BIG WINNERS

In a racing era of constantly incoming internationals and of a breeding industry dominated by the big NSW studs, came something of a remarkable result this spring for the local Victorian industry.

Winners of the distance classics the Victoria Derby (Observer) and VRC Oaks (Strictly Business), as well as dual Cups winner Half Yours, were all bred in Victoria. Add to that Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Tentyris and Champions Sprint winner Giga Kick and you’ve got an unprecedented spree for the local farms.

COX PLATE No.4 FOR MCDONALD

He didn’t dominate like he has in other record-breaking Spring Carnivals, but the reigning World’s Best Jockey James McDonald again registered a major achievement this spring with his fourth Cox Plate victory in a row aboard Via Sistina.

He first won with Anamoe in 2022 and followed it up with Romantic Warrior in 2023, before dual wins by Via Sistina.

Hugh Bowman won four with Winx (2015-18) and Brent Thomson also won four in five years from 1975-79. Glen Boss won four, starting with Makybe Diva’s 2005 win and finishing with Sir Dragonet’s in 2020.

McDonald still has to catch Darby Munro, who rode five Cox Plate winners from 1933 to 1952.