None of these answers were correct in my case.. the order seems dependent on the alphabetical ordering of the <id> tag, which is an arbitrary string. Hence this forced repo search order:
<repository>
<id>1_maven.apache.org</id>
<releases> <enabled>true</enabled> </releases>
<snapshots> <enabled>true</enabled> </snapshots>
<url>https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2</url>
<layout>default</layout>
</repository>
<repository>
<id>2_maven.oracle.com</id>
<releases> <enabled>true</enabled> </releases>
<snapshots> <enabled>false</enabled> </snapshots>
<url>https://maven.oracle.com</url>
<layout>default</layout>
</repository>