Champions Stakes Tips, Best Bets, Odds, Field & More 2025

Welcome to your complete coverage of the Champions Stakes. This is one of the biggest Group One races on the Australian calendar and generates a lot of interest each year. On this page, we will walk you through all the most important aspects of the Champions Stakes, like field, betting and tips information.

Best Champions Stakes Betting Sites

We have some quick facts about the Champions Stakes that you should be across to start with:

The Champions Stakes takes place right in the thick of Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival and is raced on the Saturday after the Melbourne Cup. It is a big day of racing at Flemington Racecourse, with the Champions Sprint and Champions Mile also taking part at the same track.

In 2016, the Champions Stakes, also known as the Mackinnon Stakes (its registered name), moved from being raced on Victoria Derby Day to Champions Day. This was part of Racing Victoria’s wider changes to their Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. 

There is a four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival which includes the Champions Stakes, with  Champions Day being the final day of this carnival. The first edition of the Champions Stakes was in 1937, and the race was won by The Trump.

Previously named after the former chairman of the VRC, Lauchlan Kenneth Scobie Mackinnon, the Champions Stakes has had a few name changes throughout its history. In 2016 and 2017, the race was known as the Emirates Stakes.

Finding the best Champions Stakes tips doesn’t have to be too difficult, especially now that you’ve found Australianbettingsites.net.au. Not only do we provide tips for the Champions Stakes, but we offer tips for all the major Group One races on the calendar, like Melbourne Cup tips, Victoria Derby tips and Doncaster Mile tips.

We also provide daily horse racing tips, so there is always something happening here at Australian Betting Sites. When providing our tips, we take a look at the entire field and use the form guide to develop a data-driven approach. We also like to utilise different bet types.

One of our main goals is to ensure you have an enjoyable betting experience, and we have some tips and tricks for you to follow:

• Follow In-Form Horses - By looking into the form guide, you’ll be able to pinpoint which runners are coming into the Champions Stakes in some form. Don’t just look at the results at face value, either, though. Sometimes a horse's run can be full of merit without resulting in a win.
• Use Multiple Betting Sites - There are plenty of different horse racing betting sites available for you to choose from. Having an account with different bookies makes it easier to take advantage of better odds, different promotions and more.
• Find Value Odds - While some may just blindly back the favourite, it’s always a good idea to see if any other value runners are worthwhile. You don’t have to put a win bet on the value runner you’ve found; you can play it safe if you like, with an each-way or place bet.
• Develop a Strategy - Before you start betting on Champions Stakes Day, it is a good idea to have a strategy in place. This could include the types of bets you want to place, the stake amount of each bet, and the total amount of money you have allotted for this day of betting.

There is no shortage of new betting sites in Australia, that’s for sure. If you’re ready to expand your horizons and try a different betting site, we have some recommendations for you. The betting sites listed in this section are well-known in the industry, and we believe they offer a high-quality racing product.

There are many different markets to choose from when it comes to betting on the Champions Stakes. While you may be interested in trying something new, you must have a full understanding of what each bet type entails before betting on it.

We go through all the most popular betting markets available for the Champions Stakes each year:

With $3 million in prize money and the status of a Group One victory on the line, we always see the best racehorses compete in the Champions Stakes each year. The final field and barrier draw will be announced a couple of days out from the race.

When the final field is made public, this is the time to do the form. Key form indicators will be available, and this can help point you in the direction of the next potential winner. If you’re betting with your head, checking out the form guide before placing any bets is essential.

See which runners took part in the latest edition of the Champions Stakes here:

If you’ve got a little bit of extra time up your sleeve, we recommend having a little look around to see if you can lock in the best odds. Some of the time, you’ll notice that different bookies offer different odds for the same runner, but you won’t know where the best odds lie until you do your checks.

While the difference in odds may not seem that large, every little bit does help, and it can stack up if you’re a regular bettor. On top of this, if you like to bet on roughies, the difference in odds from one bookie to another can be more significant. By spending a few extra minutes, you can get more bang for your buck.

One of the ways you can speed up the process is by using an odds comparison tool. This tool will show you all the fixed win (and potentially place) odds across multiple different bookies, all on the one page. However, they may not include all the bookies you like, and they commonly don’t include other bet types (like exotics, for example).

In our experience, we have found that in the long run, it pays to stick with certain bookies, as they usually offer odds that are higher than others in the industry. Bookies like Bet365, Palmerbet and Unibet are well-known within the industry for offering competitive odds. So, if you don’t have a lot of time, checking those three first is a good option.

The heavy, $1.60 favourite, Via Sistina, got the chocolates in the latest edition of the Champions Stakes. She beat home a field of 10 other runners and finished 2.75L ahead of the pack. Atishu, who jumped from barrier one, finished in second place in the Champions Stakes.

Filling in the final minor placing was Without A Fight, who was ridden by Mark Zahra and jumped from barrier nine. Without A Fight finished 4.75L off Via Sistina. In the end, there was a total of 10.82L that split Via Sistina in first and Nugget in last place. 

See where every runner in the Champions Stakes finished here:

Relive the action as it unfolded in the latest Champions Stakes:

There have been many top-notch winners of the Champions Stakes over the years, and we go through some of the most recent here:

We hope we have been able to answer all your questions about the Champions Stakes on this page. For a race that is as big as the Champions Stakes, we know people have a lot of questions they want answered. We have gone through and answered all the most commonly asked questions about the race in this section.