The 2017 Melbourne Cup over 3200 metres at Flemington featured the defending champion Almandin, ridden by Frankie Dettori, and Hartnell, third in 2016 and now with James Cummings. The Caulfield Cup winner Boom Time and the Geelong Cup winner Tiberian brought local form into the race.
Ireland had a strong hand. Joseph O'Brien ran the three-year-old Rekindling, second in the Irish St Leger, while his father Aidan sent Johannes Vermeer and Willie Mullins brought Max Dynamite, runner-up in 2015, along with Wicklow Brave and Thomas Hobson.
