It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races.
The Melbourne Cup was introduced by the Turf Club to trump the success of Jockey Club races, such as the Two Thousand Guineas. The Melbourne Cup is one of the world's few major handicap horseraces. A handicap race is one in which each horse is allocated a different weight depending on its age and previous form.
The Melbourne cup plays an important role in Australia's tourism industry, attracting celebrities, VIPs and visitors from around the globe who come to watch the races, bet on the action or enjoy the food, entertainment or fashion on display.
It's a celebration of multicultural Australia
The Melbourne Cup is a time for people from all different cultures to come together and celebrate Australian life. Most people at the Melbourne Cup are from Australia, but there are also people from all across the world.
Melbourne Cup, annual horse race, first held in 1861, that is the most important Australian Thoroughbred race of the year and one of the most prestigious races in the world.
In 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, 81,408 people turned up for the cup and 276,186 to the carnival overall. That's a significant drop from a decade before when it was 102,161 to the cup and 368,929 overall.
The Melbourne Cup is one of the biggest horse races in the world. Every November, horse racing fans gather at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne to witness "the race that stops a nation". The race is a 3200-metre handicap and it draws some of the most talented horses, jockeys and trainers from around the world.
Inaugural race: 1861
The most famous Thoroughbred race in Australia, the annual Melbourne Cup, dubbed “the race that stops a nation,” is a 3,200-meter (about 2-mile) turf handicap for three-year-olds and up. It is the second-richest turf race in the world, behind The Everest.
The Melbourne Cup, the race that stops a nation, has arrived and with that a flood people ready and willing to lay down their hard-earned cash for the chance to pick a winner. The heavy favourite is Deauville Legend ($4) followed by Real of Flowers ($9), Montefilia ($9) and Without a Fight ($10).
The trophy is made from 18-carat gold and is awarded to the winning owner first placed horse. The Melbourne Cup Trophy is worth a staggering $250,000 on top of the other $14 million in prize money. The winning trainer and jockey are presented with smaller versions of the Melbourne Cup which are valued at $10,000 each.
Melbourne Cup in British English
noun. an annual horse race run in Melbourne, since 1861.
A study by IER found the four-day Carnival has contributed more than $3.6bn in gross economic benefit to Victoria in the past decade, almost $1bn more than the Australian Open tennis reported for the same period. The Melbourne Cup carnival delivered $422.1m in gross economic benefit to Victoria in 2022.
Despite its long tradition – the first race was held in 1861 – the Melbourne Cup has long been questioned over its ethics and many people feel conflicted over the race.
More than half of all Melbourne Cup winners have been either four-year-old or five-year-old horses, with 90 wins combined from 161 runnings to date. At the other end of the spectrum, horses aged seven or older have won the great race only 14 times in total.
The selected entries for the Melbourne Cup are nominated in the first week of August. From an initial Melbourne Cup field of 300 to 400 horses, the committee will select the final 24 starters. However, after nominations, the owner of the runner must confirm their intention to run four more times leading to the race.
Melbourne Cup Saddlecloth Statistics
Numbers 4 and 12 are the most successful boasting 11 wins.
Saudi Cup horse racing events will see a total prize pool of $35.5m, making the two-day event the richest horse race in the world.
The Mongol Derby is the longest and toughest horse race in the world. We don't say that lightly. A decade after launching the race that title is still being backed up by riders year after year. In 1224 man of the millennium Chinggis Khaan set up the world's first long-distance postal transmission system.
Of the 1,038 people surveyed, 47% of people intend to place a bet on Tuesday's race, including 56% of males and 39% of females, up from 36% last year and 42% in 2020. Overall, 18% of those intending to gamble say they bet regularly on horse races and will place a bet this time. This is up 3% compared to a year ago.
The Everest is billed as the “world's richest race on turf” with twelve of the fastest horses competing over a distance of 1200 metres at Randwick Racecourse for prizemoney of $15,000,000. The Everest will be held on Saturday 14th October 2023 and won in 2022 by Giga Kick.
The most famous and well-known horses that you know are most likely Secretariat, Seabiscuit, and Mon O' War. These racehorses rose to celebrity status due to the huge popularity and cultural impact of the horse racing sport.
The Australia national soccer team played their first international match in 1922. They have won four Nations Cup titles, in 1980, 1996, 2000 and 2004 and one Asian Cup in 2015. However, they have never won the FIFA World Cup, with their best performance being a finish in the Round of 16 in 2006 and 2022.