The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most celebrated horse race.
The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most celebrated and famous thoroughbred race and is recognised world-wide as one of the premier events on the annual horse racing calendar.
Taking place at 3pm on the first Tuesday of November each year as the showcase event of Emirates Melbourne Cup Day at Victoria’s picturesque Flemington Racecourse, the Melbourne Cup is the richest handicap event in the world.
Now worth a record $6 million, the prestige and lucrative prizemoney of the Melbourne Cup attracts the finest stayers from all over Australia and a number of star international horses, as the crème of the racing crop contest the most testing ‘two-mile’ race in the world.
Inaugurated in 1861 and now raced over a distance of 3200m, the time-honoured Melbourne Cup has become an Australian tradition with Cup Day declared a public holiday in its home state of Victoria.
The world’s most renowned owners, trainers and jockeys all share the dream of winning a Melbourne Cup and taking home the historic ‘Loving Trophy’, and the status winning a Melbourne Cup brings to the horse and their connections is worth more than even the millions on offer in prizemoney.
Although potentially hundreds of horses can be nominated for the Melbourne Cup when nominations close around August, a maximum final field of only 24 lucky hopefuls take to the track to fight it out in the gruelling staying test.
Emirates Melbourne Cup Day is the second race meeting of Flemington’s coveted Cup Carnival, which brings Australia’s most esteemed racecourse to life over four elite race days. Cup Day is preceded by Victoria Derby Day and is followed by Crown Oaks Day before the Cup Carnival comes to a grand close with Emirates Stakes Day.
Melbourne Cup Fast Facts
- Location: Flemington Racecourse
- Date: First Tuesday of November
- Status: Group 1
- Distance: 3200m
- Prizemoney: $6 million
- Conditions: 3YO & Over – Open Handicap
- Max No of Starters: 24
- Inaugurated: 1861
Melbourne Cup Previous Winners
| Year | Winner | Jockey | Trainer | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Shocking | Corey Brown | Mark Kavanagh | 3:23.87 |
| 2008 | Viewed | Blake Shinn | Bart Cummings | 3:20.58 |
| 2007 | Efficient | Michael Rodd | Graeme Rogerson | 3:23.34 |
| 2006 | Delta Blues | Yasunari Iwata | Katsuhiko Sumii | 3:21.47 |
| 2005 | Makybe Diva | Glen Boss | Lee Freedman | 3:19.17 |
| 2004 | Makybe Diva | Glen Boss | Lee Freedman | 3:28.55 |
| 2003 | Makybe Diva | Glen Boss | David Hall | 3:19.90 |
| 2002 | Media Puzzle | Damien Oliver | Dermot K Weld | 3:16.97 |
| 2001 | Ethereal | Scott Seamer | Sheila Laxon | 3:21.08 |
| 2000 | Brew | Kerrin McEvoy | Mike Moroney | 3:18.68 |