Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jamie Melham faces a nervous wait to find out whether she’ll have the chance to defend her crown in the race that stops a nation.
Melham has secured the ride on long-shot Future History, but the Gregory Hickman-trained import sits 25th on the order of entry for Tuesday’s $10.2 million feature.
Future History needs another rival to be withdrawn in order to earn a place in the 24-horse field, after Saint George and The Euphrates were pulled out on Thursday.
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Bendigo Cup winner So You Are occupies the 24th and final slot, having been handed a 1kg penalty for Wednesday’s Group 3 triumph.
The Cup field will be finalised on Saturday night, with the barrier draw to take place at Flemington after the last race on the Derby Day card.
Melham claimed a historic Melbourne-Caulfield cups double aboard Half Yours last year, becoming the second female jockey behind Michelle Payne to win Australia’s most famous race.
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained stayer won’t defend his Melbourne Cup title, having been sent for a spell after a fall in this month’s Caulfield Cup.
That incident had tragic consequences when Half Yours brought down rival Ohope Wins, who was euthanised on-course as a result of an injury sustained.
Melham’s Cup options this year have been limited by multiple lightweight options missing the cut, and she won’t ride on Derby Day after she was unable to overturn a careless riding suspension.
Leading trainer Ciaron Maher remains on track to saddle a record number of runners in the Cup field despite vets ruling out Saint George, who was deemed “currently at heightened risk of injury”.
The Caulfield Cup runner-up, who finished midfield in the Cox Plate last Saturday, will be spelled after failing mandatory pre-race scans.
Saint George passed the initial trot-up on Thursday about an hour before scan results were made known to connections.
Maher has seven runners in the top 22 on the order of entry, including $6 favourite and Geelong Cup winner Point Of Law.
Robert Hickmott had a record six runners for seven-time winning owner Lloyd Williams in the 2013 Cup, which was won by the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente.
Two-time Cup-winning trainer Joseph O’Brien also has a significant hand with five runners inside the cutline, including leading contenders Trustyourinstinct ($7) and Defiantly ($11).
Irishman O’Brien first won the Cup with Rekindling in 2017 and was the most recent northern hemisphere trainer to triumph when Twilight Payment won in 2020.
The Euphrates’ withdrawal means Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott will have only one Cup contender this year – evergreen veteran Vauban, who returns for his fourth attempt.
The nine-year-old gelding contested the Cup twice for legendary Irish trainer Willie Mullins, running 14th as favourite in 2023 and 11th the year after.
Transferred to Sydney-based Waterhouse-Bott, he finished a solid sixth in 2025.
