'The race that stops a nation™'
Date: Tuesday 1 November 2011

Australia's most famous race, the $6 million Emirates Melbourne Cup is the richest handicap in the world.

It is not only Australia's most famous thoroughbred race, but it is this country's best known sporting event. The Emirates Melbourne Cup is run at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, on the first Tuesday of November each year. During the Second World War, the Cup was run on a Saturday.

The Emirates Melbourne Cup is the richest race on the Australasian Racing Calendar, and in 2010, the prize money was set at an unprecedented $AUD6,000,000. This puts the race among the richest races in the world.

It is the dream of every owner, trainer and rider to win the Emirates Melbourne Cup, but not just for the riches that await them. The chance to become part of Australian racing history, by winning the country's most famous sporting prize, lives deep in the psyche of Australian racing people.

History

The race originated in 1861 as a result of one upmanship between the Victoria Jockey Club and the Victoria Turf Club. In that year the Turf Club decided to introduce a two mile handicap, to be called the Melbourne Cup, to trump its rival club.

The first ever Melbourne Cup was won by Archer in 1861, and he won it again the following year. The more famous winners of the great race include Carbine (1890), Phar Lap (1930), Peter Pan (1932 & 1934), Comic Court (1951), Rising Fast (1954), Galilee (1966), Rain Lover (1968 & 1969), Kiwi (1983), Vintage Crop (1993), Saintly (1996), Might And Power (1997) and Makybe Diva (2003, 2004 & 2005).

The deeds of Makybe Diva in winning three consecutive Emirates Melbourne Cups, as handicaps, had been hitherto considered impossible. No mare had ever won two Cups before Makybe Diva, and she set a weight carrying record for a mare (to win) in the 2004 Cup, and then increased that benchmark in the 2005 race.

The master trainer JB (Bart) Cummings easily holds the record for the number of Melbourne Cup winners, with twelve. Harry White and Bobbie Lewis share the riding honours with four wins each.

The Emirates Melbourne Cup is run over 3200 Metres (2 miles prior to 1972) under handicap conditions. Entries for the race close in the first week of August.

The Emirates Melbourne Cup is affectionately referred to as "the race that stops a nation". In all parts of Australia, people stop what they are doing shortly before 3pm on Cup Day to watch or listen to the race, via television, internet or radio. In Melbourne itself, the day is declared a public holiday, and upwards of 100,000 people usually attend Flemington Racecourse. The race is televised live to an audience of about 700 million people worldwide.

Since 1993, horses trained in the Northern Hemisphere have travelled to Melbourne each year to compete in the Melbourne Cup. In the very first year of this pilgrimage, the Irish-owned and Dermot Weld-trained Vintage Crop changed the Melbourne Cup forever, by winning the great race. A second placing by Godolphin's Central Park, in 1999, was matched by an equally bold second by that stable's front running stayer Give The Slip in 2001. Third placings by English trained Persian Punch in 1998 and 2001 were extremely brave performances.

Then in 2002, the same combination of Irish owner and trainer broke through to repeat their 1993 triumph, with the free running stayer Media Puzzle. The invasion continued in 2003 when England's Jardine's Lookout finished on hard for third, while in 2004 it took the best staying mare in the world to prevent Ireland's Vinnie Roe from lifting the Emirates Melbourne Cup out of Australia again for Dermot Weld.

Since then, entrants from Japan, USA, Ireland, England, France, Germany, UAE and Hong Kong have joined approximately 250 Australian and New Zealand horses in the list of nominations. Plans by international connections to bring horses to Melbourne are decided upon when handicap weights are announced in early September.

In 2006, the Japanese owned and trained pair Delta Blues and Pop Rock almost dead-heated for the Emirates Melbourne Cup, with the former victorious. With more than 4 lengths to the third horse, the Japanese runners lifted the Cup to a new level as the Stayers Championship of the World, and brought international racing to the forefront like few others before them.

2010 was the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup and the VRC planned a year-long celebration to appropriately mark this iconic milestone.

Past winners of the Emirates Melbourne Cup for the last 25 years

More historical information can also be found:

• On our Resources for Schools website. 
• By visiting our Flemington Heritage Centre and take a guided walking tour of the Melbourne Cup Walk of Fame.