St Leger vs Arc vs Melbourne Cup: three ways a country values stamina

By RB Editor · Updated: August 28, 2026

One race treats stamina as heritage, one as a championship test, and one as a national spectacle. Here is how the numbers tell that story.

Stamina means something different depending on where you are watching it. Britain treats it as heritage, France as a championship test, and Australia as pure spectacle. Three of the world’s great staying races show exactly why.

St Leger: heritage over commerce

Run at Doncaster over an extended mile and six, the St Leger is the oldest of Britain’s five Classics and open to three-year-olds only. Prize money stood at £700,000 in 2025.

Its status has always been historically the highest of the Classics, yet commercially it is often the one Derby winners skip, a pattern our Triple Crown analysis covers in full.

The Arc: a championship of class

The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe runs at Longchamp over 2,400 metres on the first Sunday of October, under weight-for-age conditions rather than a fixed three-year-old cap. It carries a €5 million purse in 2026, the richest in European Flat racing, and Qatar has sponsored it since 2008. Where the Leger looks backward to tradition, the Arc functions as the season’s championship decider, and its form still carries serious weight in the breeding shed.

Melbourne Cup: the spectacle that stopped being about stamina

Australia’s Melbourne Cup could not be more different in structure. It is a handicap, run at Flemington over roughly two miles on the first Tuesday of November, founded in 1861 and famous enough to earn Victoria a public holiday. The prize fund runs to A$10 million for the 2025–26 season (approximately US$6.5 million), the richest handicap in the world.

An imported field

Australia has never built much of a reputation for producing true stayers. Recently 21 of 24 runners in the race were bred in the northern hemisphere, imported specifically to compete for the prize.

Where the real money went instead

The clearest sign of where Australian racing’s priorities actually sit is not the Cup itself. The country’s two richest races are now The Everest, a true six-furlong sprint worth A$20 million, and the Golden Eagle, a set-weights mile for four-year-olds worth A$10 million, meaning the big money has moved decisively toward speed rather than stamina.

The comparison at a glance

Three races, three continents, three completely different reasons to run two miles. That is the real story stamina racing tells once you look past the finish line.