The 2025 Melbourne Cup, known commercially as the 2025 Lexus Melbourne Cup, was the 165th running of the Melbourne Cup, an Australian thoroughbred horse race. The race, run over , was held on 4 November 2025 at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse.
The final field for the race was declared on 1 November 2025. The total prize money for the race is A$10 million, a $144,000 increase from 2024. The race was won by Half Yours, ridden by Jamie Melham, the first woman to win since Michelle Payne in 2015.
Absurde, Land Legend, Buckaroo, Vauban, Onesmoothoperator and Valiant King returned from 2024, where they placed 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th and 13th respectively. Absurde and Vauban also participated in 2023, placing 7th and 14th respectively, as well as More Felons who placed 12th. Smokin' Romans and Arapaho participated in 2022, placing 7th and 11th respectively. Athabascan was in the field in 2024 but was scratched.
Several former champions raced: three-time champion Kerrin McEvoy (2000, 2016 and 2018), two-time champion Mark Zahra (2022 and 2023), and one-time champions Blake Shinn (2008), Craig Williams (2019), Jye McNeil (2020), James McDonald (2021) and Robbie Dolan (2024). Other jockeys in the field with Cup success included Joao Moreira (2nd in 2016 and 2023), Ben Melham (2nd in 2017), Jamie Melham (3rd in 2020 and 2024, but who won this iteration), Wayne Lordan (3rd in 2019) and Beau Mertens (3rd in 2023). Among the jockeys, only five had not previously participated in the cup: Ethan Brown, Celine Gaudray, Thore Hammer-Hansen, Stéphane Pasquier and John Velazquez.
Former winning trainers participating were Joseph O'Brien (2017 and 2020), Gai Waterhouse (2013), Chris Waller (2021) and Ciaron Maher (2022).
The 10,000,000 prize pool is distributed as follows:
The prizemoney increased by 2,250,000 from the 2024 race to include, for the first time, prizemoney for runners that finshed from thirteenth to last should the runner meet conditions set out by the VRC.