1 CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME TAB Champions Stakes Day at Flemington brings the 2026 Melbourne Cup Carnival week to an exhilarating conclusion. Appropriately, attention is on our champion thoroughbreds, racing at their very best. We also salute their trainers and the skilled and courageous jockeys. Some names today, horse and human, we know and love as established heroes. Others right now are cementing their reputations as new champions of the turf. Without question, this is the grand finale of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Three Group 1 champion races are on offer and run in succession. Each carrying $3 million in prizemoney, to decide the best racehorses in Australia at weight-for-age over three key distances. The VRC Champions Sprint is run down the Straight Six course of 1200 metres, and has a lineage dating back to 1960, with such greats as Vain and Black Caviar (twice) on its winners’ list. The VRC Champions Mile is a 1600 metre contest, and traces it history through such races as the Cantala Stakes, back to the 1880s. And the TAB Champions Stakes of 2000 metres builds on the heritage of the LKS Mackinnon Stakes, previously the Melbourne Stakes, and connects the 1860s. Each race glories in this heritage, but it is all about today. Then add the Group 3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes of 2600 metres for stayers, a race won by Makybe Diva the year before the first of her three Melbourne Cups. The Group 2 TAB ONE POOL Matriarch Stakes over 2000 metres is strictly for mares. It was first run a mere 33 years ago. The past, present and future come together on TAB Champions Stakes Day for a great farewell to the 2026 Carnival. After the last, party on with FISHER at The Elms Live Stage presented by Maccas. Neil Wilson Chairman
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