The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most famous annual Thoroughbred horse race. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, 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 event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".
Thoroughbred horse racing is an important spectator sport in Australia, and gambling on horse races is a very popular pastime with A$14.3 billion wagered in 2009/10 with bookmakers and the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB). The two forms of Thoroughbred horseracing in Australia are flat racing, and races over fences or hurdles in Victoria and South Australia. Thoroughbred racing is the third most attended spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost two million admissions to 360 registered racecourses throughout Australia in 2009/10. Horseracing commenced soon after European settlement, and is now well-appointed with automatic totalizators, starting gates and photo finish cameras on nearly all Australian racecourses.
Damien Oliver is an Australian thoroughbred racing jockey. Oliver comes from a racing family; his father Ray Oliver had a successful career until his death in a race fall during the 1975 Kalgoorlie cup in Western Australia. In 2008 Oliver was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
The Australian and New Zealand punting glossary explains some of the terms, jargon and slang which are commonly used and heard on Australian and New Zealand racecourses, in TABs, on radio, and in the horse racing media. Some terms are peculiar to Australia, such as references to bookmakers, but most are used in both countries.
Might and Power was a New Zealand bred, Australian owned and trained Thoroughbred racehorse who was named Australian Horse of the Year in 1998 and 1999. As a four-year-old, Might And Power won the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, and returned at five to become only the second horse in the history of Australian racing to win both Cups and the Cox Plate. He also won a number of other weight-for-age races in this period, including the Mercedes Classic, the AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Doomben Cup. A strong, free-striding front-runner, he broke course records in winning the Caulfield Cup, the Doomben Cup, and the Cox Plate, and won a number of races by big margins.
Thomas John Smith was a leading trainer of thoroughbred racehorses based in Sydney, New South Wales.
Rat-baiting is a blood sport that involves releasing captured rats in an enclosed space with spectators betting on how long a dog, usually a terrier, takes to kill the rats. Often, two dogs competed, with the winner receiving a cash prize. It is now illegal in most countries.
Amounis was an Australian Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse. He won 33 races over distances ranging from 6 to 12 furlongs. Of these wins, 27 were in "Principal Races", 16 of these races have since been promoted to Group One (G1) status. In winning the AJC Epsom Handicap he established a new Australasian record time.
Etienne Livingston de Mestre, was a 19th-century Australian breeder and jockey of Thoroughbred racehorses, De Mestre, was Australia's first outstanding racehorse trainer and racing identity. In his 30-year career he experienced all the highs and the lows of the turf in a career which ended with him dependent on donations from racing friends.
Tulloch was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who was one of the greatest Australian stayers.
Craig Williams is a Victoria, Australia based jockey. He has won multiple group one races in Australia and worldwide, including the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
The Double Event is a 1911 Australian feature-length film directed by W. J. Lincoln based on the first novel by Nat Gould, which had been adapted several times for the stage, notably by Bland Holt.
Cotherstone (1840–1864) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from September 1841 to July 1843 he ran eleven times and won eight races. After being beaten on his debut, Cotherstone won his next six races including the 1843 2000 Guineas and Epsom Derby. A narrow defeat in the St. Leger Stakes prevented him from being recognised as the first winner of the English Triple Crown. He was regarded by contemporary experts as one of the best British racehorses of his era. After sustaining a serious injury in his only race in 1844 he was retired to stud where he had moderate success.
Thomas Robert Waterhouse is an Australian businessman, Chief Investment Officer of Waterhouse VC, Director of TomWaterhouse.com, co-founder of investment firm ListedReserve.com. He is the fourth generation of the Waterhouse racing dynasty and the grandson of one of the first official bookmakers in Australia.
Protectionist is a Thoroughbred racehorse bred and trained in Germany. He was bred by Christoph Berglar, and owned by Berglar in conjunction with an Australian syndicate. Protectionist was the winner of the 2014 Melbourne Cup, ridden by Ryan Moore and trained by Andreas Wöhler, and became the first German-trained horse to win the race.
Thomas Hales was an Australian jockey who has been called the Fred Archer of the Australian turf. During his 20-year career he rode nearly 500 winners, including every major South Australian and Victorian race with the exception of the Caulfield Cup.
Charles Leslie Macdonald, generally known as Leslie or C. Leslie Macdonald, was a racehorse owner and breeder, noted for two Melbourne Cup winners, Revenue in 1901 and Night Watch in 1918.
James "Old Jim" Wilson was a racehorse trainer in Victoria, Australia, founder of the historic St Albans Stud in Geelong, and trainer of the 1873 Melbourne Cup winner Don Juan and 1876 winner Briseis. His older son James Wilson, Jr. captained the Geelong Football Club and as "Young Jim Wilson" trained 1899 Cup winner Merriwee. His younger son William Wilson was the jockey who rode Don Juan to victory in the 1873 Cup.
Don Juan was an Australian bred thoroughbred racehorse who is most notable for winning the 1873 Melbourne Cup.
Winooka was a bay Australian thoroughbred stallion who raced for 5 seasons from a two-year-old to a six-year-old including America recording major wins from 6 furlongs to 1 mile and winning jockeys being Stan Davidson from Newcastle and Sydney Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductees Jim Pike and Edgar Britt.
