The winner of the Melbourne Cup collects a substantial share of the total prize pool, with the exact amount typically around A$4.4–4.5 million for the winning horse in recent years. Direct answer
- Melbourne Cup prize for the winner (connections): about A$4.4–4.5 million, from the overall purse of about A$10 million in recent editions. The breakdown usually allocates the winner roughly 44–45% of the total prize pool, with the remainder distributed among placings from second through twenty-fourth. The jockey typically receives about 5% of the winning prize as their riding fee, and trainers receive a substantial share as well, commonly around 10% of the prize money earned by the winning horse.
