Reigning Australian Racehorse of the Year Weekend Hussler will have history against him as he shoots for glory in this year's Caulfield and Melbourne Cups after being allotted 55.5kg for both races.
But with the six horses weighted on or above 57kg - the minimum top weight for a Group One handicap in Victoria - weights will be lifted at least one kilo, leaving Weekend Hussler with an imposing 56.5kg in the Caulfield Cup.
His impost would rise another half kilo to 57kg should the four horses given 56kg in the weights released on Wednesday morning - international pair Lucarno and Schiaparelli, Sirmione and Pompeii Ruler - all miss the race as well.
Even if the weights are unaltered, should Weekend Hussler win this year's Caulfield Cup, for which he was a $4 favourite, he will have done so carrying the most weight for a four-year-old winner since Sky Heights shouldered 56.5kg in 1999.
Only Gay Icarus, with 58kg in 1971, has lumped more to victory in his four-year-old season in the past 50 years.
The pair was the only two four-year-olds to have won the Caulfield Cup with more weight than Weekend Hussler in the past 50 years.
And only Saintly, Might And Power and Gurner's Lane have won the Melbourne Cup as four-year-olds with more weight.
As expected, O'Brien's champion stayer Yeats, with 59kg, topped this year's Melbourne Cup weights, which were released on Tuesday morning at Flemington.
Stablemate Septimus, the current second favourite for the Melbourne Cup, was next in the weights with 58.5kg, but O'Brien has already declared his stable will bypass the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate in preference for the 3200m race.
Last year's winner Efficient, an unlikely Caulfield Cup starter, must lump 58kg in his quest for back to back victories.
Japanese stayer Delta Blues, the 2006 winner who has already been ruled out of this year's race due to strict quarantine regulations, and French galloper Doctor Dino were next in with 57.5kg ahead of 2006 runner-up Pop Rock on 57kg.
RVL racing manager Leigh Jordon told Sportal French-based trainer Richard Gibson had indicated to him Doctor Dino would not be heading to Australia this spring.
Comeback galloper Pompeii Ruler, with 56kg, was the only other Australasian-trained horse in the top 10 weights.
Maldivian has 55kg in both cups as does Master O'Reilly, who rises from the 50.5kg he carried to victory in last year's Caulfield Cup and the 53.5kg in the Melbourne Cup.
In other notable weights, star Sydney mare Tuesday Joy has 54.5kg in both races, a half kilo more than Sydney Cup winner No Wine No Song, while Luca Cumani's Mad Rush has 53.5kg.
The two best hopes for Bart Cummings, shooting for his 12th Melbourne Cup, Sirmione and Viewed were asked to carry 56kg and 53kg respectively.
But much of the focus was on what weight Racing Victoria Limited's chief handicapper Greg Carpenter would hand Weekend Hussler in the most eagerly-awaited release of Cup weights since 2005 when Makybe Diva was shooting for a third straight win in the race.
Carpenter said champion three-year-olds of yesteryear Mahogany and Octagonal were the benchmarks he used when assessing Weekend Hussler's handicap.
All three gallopers had won six Group One races when weights were being assessed but significantly, Carpenter said, Weekend Hussler had won all his races up to the mile whereas the other two had both won at staying