Point Of Law wins the 2026 Melbourne Cup as trainer Ciaron Maher sweeps the first three places in historic first
Point Of Law has won the 2026 Melbourne Cup at Flemington, with trainer Ciaron Maher making history as the first trainer to fill the first three places in the race’s 166 runnings, ahead of stablemates Zahrann and Juja Kibo.
Point Of Law has won the 2026 Melbourne Cup at Flemington, delivering trainer Ciaron Maher a piece of racing history no trainer had managed in the 166 runnings of Australia’s most famous race. The three-year-old colt, ridden by Ethan Brown, crossed the line ahead of stablemates Zahrann and Juja Kibo, giving Maher the first one-two-three sweep by a single stable in the Cup’s long history.
Point Of Law started as favourite for the 3,200-metre feature and won by three and three-quarter lengths, stopping the clock at 3 minutes 21.88 seconds on a track rated Soft 5. Zahrann, ridden by Ben Melham, finished second, with Juja Kibo, ridden by Sam Clipperton, a short head further back in third. The result capped a remarkable day for Maher, who saddled seven runners in the race and had five of them finish in the top six.
The way the race unfolded made the finish all the more dramatic. Another Maher runner, Royal Supremacy, shot out to a huge early lead, reported to be around 20 lengths clear at the 1,000-metre mark and still about 12 lengths in front with 400 metres to run. His jockey, Ben Allen, later said the big lead “obviously wasn’t the plan”. Brown, meanwhile, brought Point Of Law through the chasing pack to run the leader down in the closing stages, while Royal Supremacy held on for fifth.
For Maher, the victory was his second Melbourne Cup, after Gold Trip in 2022, and he made no secret of the strength of his hand going into the race. “I knew I had my best hand going into it, we just had to execute,” he told broadcaster Channel 7. The scale of the achievement was underlined by the numbers: seven runners, five in the top six, and the first three home all from the same stable — something no trainer had done before in a race first run in 1861.
For Brown, the win was a personal milestone as well. It was his first Melbourne Cup, and it came after a long road back: the Alice Springs-born jockey was out of racing for six months after a serious fall in the 2023 Australian Guineas at Flemington. He credited Maher with standing by him through that period, saying the trainer had “done nothing but support me and back me in”. Brown had also ridden Point Of Law to victory in the Geelong Cup, the traditional lead-up race.
Point Of Law’s own story added another layer to the occasion. The colt was bred in England and was formerly owned by King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Maher’s camp bought him at its second attempt, raising its first offer after he won the Group 3 Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket in July; the price was not disclosed. His owners now include Deg Racing, A R E Investments, Symphony Racing 3, former Australian rules footballer Chris Judd and Ciaron Maher Racing.
The record books were rewritten in more than one way. Point Of Law became only the fourth horse to win the Geelong Cup and the Melbourne Cup in the same year, after Media Puzzle in 2002, Americain in 2010 and Dunaden in 2011. He also became just the third Northern Hemisphere three-year-old to win the Cup, after Rekindling in 2017 and Cross Counter in 2018. The Cup was only the sixth start of his career, and he carried 53 kilogrammes.
The international challenge, as so often in recent years, came up short. Joseph O’Brien’s five Irish-trained runners left without a win, with Sons And Lovers, fourth, the best of them. The day had begun with drama before the race itself: Asterix, trained by Chris Waller, was scratched on race day after stewards found that Penetrene, a topical medication, had been applied to the horse that day. Waller was fined 50,000 Australian dollars, with chief steward Rob Montgomery calling it an “honest mistake”, and the scratching left jockey Jye McNeil without a ride in the Cup.
Elsewhere on the Flemington card, there were more stories of resilience and success. Harry Coffey rode Shockletz to sixth just days after surgery to fix a collarbone he broke in a fall on Victoria Derby Day, and Maher added another winner on the day when Fundamental Nature took the last race. More than 97,000 people attended Flemington for Cup Day, the largest Cup Day crowd since 2016, and the day also marked 30 years since Saintly won the 1996 Cup for legendary trainer Bart Cummings.
What happens next for Point Of Law will be watched closely. A Northern Hemisphere three-year-old winning Australia’s greatest race at only his sixth start, from a stable that has just produced a historic trifecta, is the kind of result that reshapes a season — and the question now is whether Maher’s colt can build on a debut Cup campaign that already sits among the most remarkable in the race’s history, or whether the chasing pack, at home and abroad, can find an answer to a stable that has just swept the podium.
