A Closer Look for Real Punters – Melbourne Cup

Posted on November 2, 2026November 2, 2026 | Posted by TABtouch

Brad Bishop takes a look into the record of horses on the back-up in the Cox Plate, brought to you by TABtouch.

The early history of the Melbourne Cup is littered with winners whose stories seem fanciful, none more so than Martini-Henry.

That’s the horse who made his debut in the 1883 Victoria Derby, which he won, before backing up to win the Melbourne Cup.

He will forever be the most lightly-raced winner of the nation’s greatest race, but this year’s edition of the 3200-metre Group 1 is a chance to produce one of the most lightly-raced winners since.

Point Of Law will be facing the starter for only the sixth time in Tuesday’s race and will be the equal second most lightly-raced horse to contest the race since its internationalisation in 1993.

The Ciaron Maher-trained colt, a three-year-old by Northern Hemisphere time, is tackling it 206 days after making his debut in a 2011-metre 3YO novice at Yarmouth in Great Britain.

The only horse to have had fewer starts leading into a Melbourne Cup since 1993 was Tiger Moth, who ran second to Twilight Payment in 2020 at his fifth start.

The next most lightly-raced was Bondi Beach, who ran 16th in 2015 at his sixth start.

The consensus is the Melbourne Cup is a race for seasoned performers, but Maher might be onto something with his approach to it with Point Of Law.

The international era has seen 26 horses contest the Melbourne Cup with fewer than 10 starts to their name and 14 of them – which is 53.8 percent – finished in the top four.

Cross Counter won in 2018 at his eighth start, while both Protectionist and Rekindling were having start No 10 when they won in 2014 and 2017 respectively.

Tiger Moth, Nothin’ Leica Dane (8th start), Maluckyday (9th) and Fiorente (10th) finished runner-up, while Mahler (2007) finished third at his eighth start with Beekeeper (2002), Xcellent (2005) and Il Paradiso (2019) finished in the same spot at their ninth outing. Three others finished fourth.

Point Of Law is not the only one engaged in this year’s race with single-figure starts in experience, with James J Braddock set to have his eighth start on Tuesday.

Experience might not be Point Of Law’s biggest impediment with the son of Frankel a chance to start favourite in the Melbourne Cup.

At 8.30am on race eve, he was TABtouch‘s $6.50 favourite from Trustyourinstinct ($8.50) and Shockletz ($10).

Whoever does start favourite will be charged with overcoming the hoodoo that has seen just one favourite score in the past 20 years.

Makybe Diva was the punters’ pick in the latter two of her three wins, in 2004/05, but a favourite was not successful again until Fiorente in 2013.

Fiorente, who won at $7, remains the last favourite to take out the race with winners since including two of the five longest-priced winners in the history of the race – Prince Of Penzance ($101 in 2015) and Knight’s Choice ($91 in 2024).