Melbourne Cup 2025: Historical omen guide of barrier numbers, saddlecloth numbers, letters and words & more

With the Melbourne Cup fast approaching, we take a look at some of the most - and least - successful omens for this year’s runners by way of barrier numbers, saddlecloth numbers, colours and more. BARRIER NUMBERS - The barriers that have produced the most Melbourne Cup winners - with eight each - are Barrier 5 (most recently last year with Knight’s Choice) and Barrier 11 (most recently in 2010 with Americain) - The next most successful barriers are No.14 and No.19, with six wins apiece - Only one barrier has failed to produced a Melbourne Cup winner in the past 100 years: Barrier 7 SADDLECLOTH NUMBERS - No.4 is the most frequent winning number, producing 13 Melbourne Cup winners (most recently Verry Elleegant in 2021) - No.1 and No.12 are the next most successful, each responsible for 11 winners - No.7, No.16, No.18 and No.21 are the least successful saddlecloth numbers, each producing just two winners each. The most recent win by a No.18 was back in 1932 (Peter Pan) LETTERS AND WORDS - The most popular starting letter of Melbourne Cup winners is T. The most recent was Twilight Payment in 2020, but it’s the only one this century - There have been five starting letters that have never produced a Melbourne Cup winner: I, Q, U, X, and Y - Multiple-word horses have won the past seven Melbourne Cups. The last single-word winner was Rekindling in 2017 COLOURS - White has been the most frequently-occurring colour in the silks of winning Melbourne Cup jockeys, appearing 75 times. It’s followed by blue (61 times) and black (59) - The most popular winning horse colour is bay (a reddish-brown to brown body with black mane and tail). It’s produced 73 winners, including Knight’s Choice last year BETTING ODDS - Since Makybe Diva’s last run in 2005, just one Melbourne Cup favourite has won: Fiorente in 2013, with Damien Oliver on board - The longest price to produce a Melbourne Cup winner is $100, which has happened four times. The most recent was Prince of Penzance in 2015 SUCCESSFUL JOCKEYS - Bobbie Lewis and Harry White have each ridden four Melbourne Cup winners as jockeys. Three-time winner Kerrin McEvoy can join them this year if he salutes on Absurde - Having won in 2022 and 2023, Mark Zahra - this year riding Al Riffa - is looking to join Glen Boss (2003/04/05) as the only jockeys to win three times inside a four-year span - Robbie Dolan (2024), James McDonald (2021), Jye McNeil (2020), Craig Williams (2019) and Blake Shinn (2008) are other former Melbourne Cup winners in this year’s field - Jamie and Ben Melham will this year become the first married couple to race against one another in the Melbourne Cup MOST WINS - Makybe Diva is the only horse to win the Melbourne Cup three times, coming in consecutive years between 2003 and 2005 - Bart Cummings has a record 12 wins by a trainer, more than double the next best of Lee Freedman and Etienne de Mestre (five each) - Lloyd Williams holds the record for most wins by an owner, with seven (most recently Twilight Payment in 2020)