Irish St Leger winner Al Riffa and Australia’s reigning champion mare Via Sistina will carry equal topweight for this year’s $10 million Melbourne Cup, with Racing Victoria confirming the new handicaps on Tuesday.
Both horses have been assigned 59kg under a new Group 1 weight scale that lifts the minimum Cup topweight from 58kg to 59kg, while raising the floor for older horses from 50kg to 51kg.
The changes, introduced in April, also ensure a minimum 57kg topweight in the final declared field, meaning weights may still rise before Cup day.
Neither Via Sistina nor Al Riffa remain in contention for the Caulfield Cup after first declarations, forcing Racing Victoria’s handicappers to elevate that race’s weights by 2kg. Buckaroo and Light Infantry Man now sit atop the Caulfield Cup handicap with 59kg, though Buckaroo drops to 57kg in the Melbourne Cup.
Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper David Hegan said the task of assigning topweights for Flemington was straightforward.
“The topweights for the Melbourne Cup are clear cut, with Via Sistina and Al Riffa both set at 59kg,” Hegan said. “Via Sistina’s record speaks for itself and she carries the single best performance rating of any nominated horse following her dominant eight-length win in last year’s Cox Plate. Her class is clear up to 2000 metres, with the staying challenge of two miles the only major query. Al Riffa was a dominant winner of the Group 1 Irish St Leger on Sunday. He has now won Group 1 races at distances ranging from 1400 metres to 2800 metres.”
Last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice has risen 3.5kg to 55kg under the new scale, while major local hopes Treasurethe Moment (54kg), Buckaroo (57kg), Sir Delius (55.5kg) and Vauban (56.5kg) all figure prominently in the weights.
