Al Riffa remains the Melbourne Cup favourite after a flood of money came in on Monday, including a $500,000 bet at the Call of the Card function. The Irish raider sits at $7, ahead of Half Yours at $7.50, French hope Presage Nocturne ($8.50) and Chris Waller-trained pair Valiant King ($9) and Buckaroo ($10).
Half Yours will carry the weight of a nation as the only Australian-bred galloper in the $10 million race. Star jockey Jamie Melham is chasing a slice of history on the five-year-old, aiming to become just the second female jockey to salute.
The Melbourne Cup will have a full field of 24 horses for the first time in six years after Racing Victoria announced on Monday night that all runners had passed their pre-race scans and checks. All runners passed their mandatory checks for the $10 million race, which marks the first time since 2019 that there hasn't been a late scratching.
Starting in 2019, there had been at least one horse scratched on the Monday night or Tuesday morning of the great race in every previous edition. But not in 2025, with every horse cleared to race by vets and stewards.
It follows a move in 2021 to implement stricter screening and checks for horses set to compete in the Melbourne Cup, which has made the race much safer. The new measures resulted in a number of high-profile horses being ruled out in the weeks and days that preceded the Cup.