The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms 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 event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament organized by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held before the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
The Nine Network is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia.
The National Basketball League (NBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Australasia, currently composed of 10 teams: 9 in Australia and 1 in New Zealand. It is the premier professional men's basketball league in Australia and New Zealand.
Network 10 is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK & Australia division. One of five national free-to-air networks, 10's owned-and-operated stations can be found in the state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth while affiliates extend the network to regional areas of the country.
The Seven Network is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of the five main free-to-air television networks in Australia. The network's headquarters are located in Sydney.
A-League Men is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competition for the sport. A-League Men was established in 2004 as the A-League by the Australian Soccer Association (ASA) as a successor to the National Soccer League (NSL) and competition commenced in August 2005. The league is currently administered by the Australian Professional Leagues (APL), contested by thirteen teams; eleven based in Australia and two based in New Zealand. The men's, women's and youth leagues have now been brought together under a unified A-Leagues banner.
Nine's Wide World of Sports is a long running sports anthology brand on Australian television that airs on the Nine Network and streaming service Stan. All major sports, events and series covered by the network are broadcast under this brand, the flagship sports being rugby league, rugby union and Grand Slam tennis, the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Games, and spring horse racing. Previous sporting rights include the Australian rules football, Australian Cricket Team home season, autumn horse racing, swimming until 2008, and golf since 2018.
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian rules football organisations.
In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.
Tennis in Australia refers to the sport of tennis played in Australia. Tennis in Australia has been administered by Tennis Australia since 1904.
Optus Sport is an Australian group of sports channels, owned by Optus launched on 13 July 2016. The network was launched after Optus outbid the incumbent Foxtel.
The 2018 Melbourne Cup was the 158th running of the Melbourne Cup, a prestigious Australian Thoroughbred horse race. The race was run over 3,200 metres (1.988 mi) on 6 November 2018 at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.
The 2019 Melbourne Cup was the 159th running of the Melbourne Cup, a prestigious Australian Thoroughbred horse race. The race, run over 3,200 metres (1.988 mi), was held on 5 November 2019 at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse.
Macquarie Sports Radio was a short-lived Australian commercial radio network broadcasting to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Owned and operated by Macquarie Media, the network launched on 4 April 2018, replacing Talking Lifestyle. Following the acquisition of Macquarie Media by Nine Entertainment Co., programs outside of live sports commentary were suspended in October 2019, and on 1 February 2020 the network ultimately ceased broadcasting.
Verry Elleegant was a New Zealand-bred Australian-trained Thoroughbred racehorse that won 11 Group One races. She was crowned the 2020/2021 Australian Racehorse of the Year, and was the winner of the 2021 Melbourne Cup and 2020 Caulfield Cup.
The 2022 Melbourne Cup was the 162nd running of the Melbourne Cup, a prestigious Australian Thoroughbred horse race. The race, run over 3,200 metres (1.988 mi), was held on 1 November 2022 at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse.
Mark Zahra is an Australian jockey who is notable for having won the Melbourne Cup on Without A Fight in 2023 and on Gold Trip in 2022, as well as the Caulfield Cup on Without A Fight in 2023 and on Verry Elleegant in 2020. He is the ninth jockey to ride back to back Melbourne Cup winners.
Without A Fight is a Thoroughbred racehorse. In 2023, he was the winner of the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup double, ridden by Mark Zahra and trained by Sam and Anthony Freedman, becoming the first horse in 22 years to claim the Caulfield cup-Melbourne cup double.
The 2024 Melbourne Cup will be the 164th running of the Melbourne Cup, an Australian thoroughbred horse race. The race, run over 3,200 metres (1.988 mi), will be held on 5 November 2024 at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse.
