Nov 05, 2019
Melbourne Cup Day
No Meeting

Melbourne Cup Day is Australia’s best known horse racing event. Since 1861 it has been held on the first Tuesday of November at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It is an annual public holiday in the state of Victoria. This event, popularly dubbed as “the race that stops the nation”, is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over, is said to be the richest ‘two-mile’ handicap in the world and is one of the richest turf races.  More than 100,000 people usually attend Flemington Racecourse, and the race is televised live to an audience of about 650 million people worldwide'.

Did you know? The 1875 winner, Wollomai, came from Phillip Island?, (which is located around 135 kilometres south-east of Melbourne and is better known for its penguin colonies). In earlier days, prior to a ferry service between Phillip Island and San Remo, animals were swum across to the Narrows.

It was thought that Wollomai had very little chance of winning, but jockey Bob Batty rode the horse to success, in a time of three minutes and thirty eight seconds, before a crowd of 70,000 people.

The owner, John Cleeland, returned to Cape Woolomai  with £22,000 pounds, having given the jockey and trainer £500 each.