Horse Racing

Melbourne Cup 2022 prize money: A full breakdown

Popularly regarded as the ‘richest’ two-mile horse race in Australia, the Melbourne Cup is a significant event from a financial perspective. In fact, it’s actually regarded as the wealthiest two-mile handicap event in the entire world. How about that for a claim to fame? And you’ll soon see why when we run through the Melbourne Cup prize money. But if this is indeed the case, what kind of money is involved for the runners on Melbourne Cup Day? Well, we are about to cover all of that through the information shared within.

Melbourne Cup Prize Money

However, before we get to that, let us quickly remind you that the Melbourne Cup race is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, November 1st. The race is a major G1 event that takes place over the course of 3,200m of track. Since it is a lengthier event, you’ve got around 3-3.5 minutes of pure racing madness. After all – there is a reason that this is called the ‘race that stops a nation’. And if you tune in to watch the Melbourne Cup unfold, you will see why.

Anyway, now that you’ve got an idea of the prestige of this race as well as the specifics of its structure and race time, let’s get back to our own main event. Of course, we are referencing the Melbourne Cup prize money for the 2022 event. 

Melbourne Cup Prize Money

Let us get right into the juicy details of this enormous horse race. Overall, the total prize money for the Melbourne Cup sits at more than $8 million AUD. Clearly, that is a staggering amount of money. And in case you weren’t aware already, the Melbourne Cup prize money is spread among the participants. The amount they receive depends on their finishing position in the race. But it’s not the jockey that receives all of the cash. 

In fact, the winning jackets only get around 5% of the total cash paid out, regardless of their finishing position. Beyond that, it’s the horse trainers that get their hands on around 10% of it. So as you can see, the actual owners of the horse get the largest bulk of the total cash prize. Then again, they do pay for all of the ultimate training and everything else that is required to maintain a successful racehorse. 

As for the exact Melbourne Cup prize money for the event on Tuesday, we’ve provided a full breakdown on how this is distributed in the next section.

Prize Money Distribution

You are probably still coming to terms with the fact that the Melbourne Cup has a total prize purse worth more than $8 million AUD. Once again, that is a significant amount of money, and it equates to roughly £4,417,000. This isn’t an exact figure, but as you can see, this is also a serious amount of cash involved in Sterling – not just Australian Dollars. But how is this money actually broken down among the winners? We’ve got all you need to know below.

Prize money for the winning jockey

As you would expect, and as is common for all major horse races from around the world, the winning jockey gets the most of the total prize purse. And for the 2022 Melbourne Cup, the winning jockey is expected to take home $4,400,000. This equates to around 60% of the total prize purse, which is a significant cut of the total cash pot. So as you might imagine, this is a high-pressure race for the jockeys involved. 

Yet if they do manage to ride their horse to victory, they are in for a serious payday. It’s no wonder they push so hard down the home stretch!

Prize money for runner-up

Even if you don’t quite score that top spot for the Melbourne Cup event, you are still in for a handsome payday. The jockey that finishes as the runner-up takes the only other sum that is in the seven-figure range. Therefore, as the runner-up for the 2022 edition of the Melbourne Cup, the cash that is given to this participant is $1,100,000. Just to give you a bit of context between the financial difference involving first and second place – the winner gets a payout that is 4x greater than the runner-up!

Prize money for third-place

It goes without saying that being able to ‘place’ in the Melbourne Cup is an astonishing achievement for any horse and jockey. However, the jockey who finishes in 3rd might have a hard time coming to terms with how much cash he/she has missed out on by not managing to edge up one more position. We say this because the third-placed jockey takes home a prize purse of $550,000 for their team.

And once again, to give you a comparison, this means that they get half of what the second-place jockey scores for their side ($550,000 less). 

Prize money for fourth-place

For the 4th place jockey, the drop isn’t quite as steep as it is between the top three positions. However, it’s still a drop of $200,000. This means that the jockey who finishes in third will get a cash pot worth $350,000.

Prize money for fifth-place

Once we start getting to these final positions, you will definitely notice a pattern. The decreases in winnings are getting less and less, as is the prize money, of course. And for the fifth-placed jockey, the prize purse is $230,000 – still a pretty hefty sum. 

Prize money for places 6-12

Here is where the prize money actually bottoms out. And since there are 24 runners for the Melbourne Cup, this puts a nice even feel to the point at which the prize purse then falls off a cliff. Anyway, the jockeys that finish anywhere between 6 and 12 will get a cash reward worth $160,000. 

FAQs – Melbourne Cup Prize Money

Does the Melbourne Cup prize money vary from year to year?

Yes. Like most of the main horse racing events in the world, the prize money here increases due to natural inflation. 

How much does the winner of the Melbourne Cup get?

The singular winner of the Melbourne Cup takes home the largest of all the cash prizes, which is $4,400,000. 

Is the Melbourne Cup trophy also quite valuable?

As it happens, yes it is. The trophy itself is rumoured to be worth around $250,000.


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