There hadn’t been a Cups Double winner since Sheila Laxon’s Ethereal won the Caulfield & Melbourne Cup(s) in 2001, and so many superb horses had tried and failed to pull it off, but the drought for the most famous Double in Australian racing has finally been ended – The 13th entry is WITHOUT A FIGHT.

Also a historic win, in that it’s the first Cups Double won by a training partnership (Anthony & Sam Freedman).

In the 22 years between drinks, several horses had won one of the major Cups and placed in the other, a result that probably helped those that didn’t salute on Caulfield Cup day:

Makybe Diva finished a narrow 2nd in the 2004 Caulfield Cup (Elvstroem), a run that set her up to win a second Melbourne Cup that year, and that second Cup win may never have occurred had the Diva won at Caulfield and copped the weight penalty.

Delta Blues ran 3rd in the 2006 Caulfield Cup after being caught wide, then after a famous rider change (Nash Rawiller off and Yasunari Iwata on), he won the 2006 Melbourne Cup in a Japan 1-2 against Pop Rock.

Vow And Declare finished 2nd in the 2019 Caulfield Cup, then won the Melbourne Cup thanks to Master of Reality veering in on Il Paradiso in the final furlong.

Incentivise won the 2021 Caulfield Cup with a performance so good he, started the shortest-priced Melbourne Cup favourite of the 21st Century (Surpassing So You Think in 2010), but he could only finish 2nd behind a dominant Verry Elleegant.

It should also be noted that in the time between Cups doubles, 3 horses did complete career Cups doubles:

Viewed won the 2008 Melbourne Cup (Bart Cummings’ last Melbourne Cup winner), then came back and won the 2009 Caulfield Cup, making him the first defending Melbourne Cup winner to win the Caulfield Cup since Rising Fast in 1955.

Dunaden won the 2011 Melbourne Cup in the closest finish in history, then made history and won the 2012 Caulfield Cup from Barrier 18, the first horse to win the race from wider than Barrier 15, and the first horse to win the race as the original top weight.

The aforementioned Verry Elleegant won the 2020 Caulfield Cup (Ending Chris Waller’s Caulfield Cup hoodoo), finished 7th in the Melbourne Cup a few weeks later, then the next year Chris Waller didn’t accept until the latest possible chance on Derby Day, and it turned out to be the right decision as the mare won the race by 4 lengths, becoming the first mare to win the Melbourne Cup since Makybe Diva, and, more historically, shattered the Barrier 18 curse that had existed for 161 years.

The Lucky 13 on the Cups Double Honour Roll

Poseidon (1906), The Trump (1937), Rivette (1939), Rising Fast (1954), Even Stevens (1962), Galilee (1966), Gurner’s Lane (1982), Let’s Elope (1991), Doriemus (1995), Might and Power (1997), Ethereal (2001) and Without A Fight (2023)