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".
Phar Lap was a New Zealand-born champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse. Achieving great success during his distinguished career, his initial underdog status gave people hope during the early years of the Great Depression. He won the Melbourne Cup, two Cox Plates, the Australian Derby, and 19 other weight-for-age races. He is universally revered as one of the greatest race horses of all time, not just in Australia but in the history of Thoroughbred horse racing.
The W. S. Cox Plate is a Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged three years old and over under Weight for age conditions, over a distance of 2040 metres, that is held by the Moonee Valley Racing Club at Moonee Valley Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in late October. The race has a purse of A$5,000,000.
The Caulfield Cup is a Melbourne Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held under handicap conditions. This is for all horses aged three years old and older. It takes place over a distance of 2400 metres at the Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in mid October. The prize money is A$5,000,000.
The Spring Racing Carnival is the name of an Australian Thoroughbred horse racing series held annually in Melbourne during October and November.
Caulfield Racecourse is one of Melbourne, Australia's best-known horse-racing tracks. Commonly known as "The Heath" by local racegoers, It is home to the Melbourne Racing Club.
Makybe Diva is a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who is the only horse to win three Melbourne Cups and the only mare to win it more than once. She achieved the feat in 2003, 2004, and 2005. She also won the 2005 Cox Plate. She was the highest stakes-earner in Australian history, winning more than A$14 million.
Damien Oliver is an Australian retired 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. In August 2023 he announced that he would retire at the end of that year's spring carnival.
The racing of Thoroughbred horses is a popular gaming and spectator sport and industry in New Zealand.
The VRC Champions Stakes, registered as the LKS Mackinnon Stakes, is a Victoria Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race run under Weight for Age conditions over a distance of 2000 metres at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia on the last day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, the Saturday after the Melbourne Cup. Total prize money is A$3,000,000.
Gabriel Marie "Gai" Waterhouse is an Australian horse trainer and businesswoman. The daughter of Tommy J. Smith, a leading trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses, Waterhouse was born and raised in Sydney. After graduating from the University of New South Wales, she worked as an actor for a time, appearing in both Australian and English television series. Having worked under her father for a period of 15 years, Waterhouse was granted an Australian Jockey Club (AJC) licence in 1992, and trained her first Group One (G1) winner later that year.
Michelle J. Payne is a retired Australian jockey. She won the 2015 Melbourne Cup, riding Prince of Penzance, and is the first and only female jockey to win the event.
The Chatham Stakes is a registered Victoria Racing Club Group 3 Thoroughbred open handicap horse race raced as the Rising Fast Stakes, over a distance of 1400 metres held annually at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia during the VRC Spring Racing Carnival. Total prize money for the race is A$200,000.
Craig Williams is a jockey based in Victoria, Australia. He has won multiple group one races in Australia and worldwide, including the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
The 2014 Emirates Melbourne Cup was the 154th running of the Melbourne Cup, Australia's most prestigious Thoroughbred horse race. The race, run over 3,200 metres, was held on 4 November 2014, at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. Protectionist, ridden by Ryan Moore and trained by German Andreas Wöhler, won the race by four lengths, becoming the first German-trained winner of the Melbourne Cup. Red Cadeaux placed second and Who Shot Thebarman third, with Red Cadeaux the first horse to place second on three occasions.
Backyard Ashes is a 2013 Australian comedy film about backyard cricket.
The 2015 Emirates Melbourne Cup was the 155th running of the Melbourne Cup, a prestigious Australian Thoroughbred horse race. The race, run over 3,200 metres (1.988 mi), was held on 3 November 2015 at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse. The date is a public holiday in the state of Victoria. The final field for the race was declared on 31 October. The total prize money for the race was A$6.2 million, the same as the previous year.
Wotan was a racehorse that won the 1936 Melbourne Cup. He is notable for winning the Cup despite being at odds of over 100 to 1, a feat also achieved by The Pearl (1871), Old Rowley (1940), and Prince of Penzance (2015).
Chris Waller, is a Hall of Fame trainer in Australian Thoroughbred racing best known for training the racemare Winx, a four-time winner of Australian Horse of the Year honours.
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.
