2026 will mark the 161st running of the Epsom Handicap, Royal Randwick's great mile race of the Spring.
The very first victor was Dundee, one of only two stakes winners sired by the 1847 AJC St Leger winner Whalebone.
Dundee won the Doncaster Hcp the following year, but he proved even less effective than his old man at stud.
It takes a rare horse to repeat a win in a major handicap, and the Epsom's first example came eighteen years later when Masquerade went back to back in 1882- 83.
Like most of the great milers he could get further, and even won a Metropolitan Hcp in between Epsoms - not too surprising as he was a full brother to the 1884 Sydney Cup hero Favo!
Another long drought ensued before Melodrama won consecutive Epsoms in 1907- 08, then in 1926 the Randwick crowd thrilled to the victory of the great Amounis as the four year old swept to his first Epsom win in Australasian record time.
Amounis, who was born and bred at Kia Ora stud, won the equivalent of 16 G1 races in 79 starts.
The magnificent son of Magpie remains the only horse to ever win non-consecutive editions of the Epsom, returning as a six year old to triumph. At seven and eight years he was faced with the younger Phar Lap but continued to rack up major wins, lumping 61 kg to win the Caulfield Cup at eight and in the same year beating Phar Lap - who was approaching the height of his powers and on a 9 race winning streak - by a head in the Warwick Stakes. Imagine the roar of the crowd that day!
“The Red Terror” would go on to win his next 14 starts and 36 of the next 41, finally surpassing Amounis as Australia's highest - earning racehorse.
This year Joe Pride's warhorse Ceowulf, the Epsom winner of 2024 will attempt to equal the deeds of Hall Of Famer Amounis and create his own very special piece of turf history. It’s a mighty ask - but the son of Tavistock is an elite competitor!
Chatham, a son of Magpie's Melbourne Cup winner Windbag, saluted in 1932 / 33, but we were into the 1960s before Toi Port made the race his own in 1963 /64.
Next cab off the rank was the one and only Super! The untouchable king of the Randwick mile, with his unheard-of “double double” - consecutive Doncasters and Epsoms in 1990/91 - sending racing fans and turf historians into raptures.
Super Impose carried 61 kg when he rocketed to a seemingly impossible second Epsom triumph. But the old boy was just getting going. He still had one of the all-time great Cox Plates to win, for starters - as an 8yo!
Not even mighty Super could eclipse the well-named Marvel who shouldered 64.5kg to win the Epsom of 1891,a weight carrying record that surely won't ever be beaten.
Marvel won the Doncaster the following year and also collected two All Aged Stakes among a haul of stakes wins. The grandson of the classy mare Myrtle, who won the Doncaster Hcp in 1874 and founded Colonial family 15, must have been one tough customer!
Gai Waterhouse trained the most recent dual Epsom winner, the big and bold Desert King gelding Desert War, to victory in 2004/2005 - just two of his six G1 wins.
There are many more great names on the Epsom's honour roll - Woorak, Beauford, Nightmarch, High Caste, Shannon, Noholme, Sky High, Gunsynd, Triton, Super's dad Imposing, Filante and Shogun Lodge were just a few of the best up to the year 2000.
Since then the standouts include Racing To Win, Secret Admirer, Boban, the great Winx ( her first Sydney G1), Hauraki, crowd favourites Happy Clapper and Hartnell, Probabeel, Private Eye ( still going!) and last year's champion Autumn Glow.
For most of the Epsom's history mares rarely got a look-in, but boy has that changed in the last couple of decades!
After Better Boy's daughter La Neige won in 1976, three and a half decades would pass before Secret Admirer (Dubawi) got the chockies in 2011. Remarkably, she led home a mares trifecta with future Cox Plate heroine Pinker Pinker and the memorable Red Tracer filling the placings - and it seemed to break the hoodoo, as Winx, Probabeel and Autumn Glow have won an Epsom since then.
Who can win it this year? check out our Breeding to Win tips.
