Melbourne Cup Winners & Spring Racing Carnival

Being one of the Melbourne cup winners is the dream of punters, horse owners, trainers and jockeys on Melbourne Cup Day - the first Tuesday in November.

Many Melburnians flock to Flemington on the Cup morning. Races are held throughout the day, culminating in the main race in the afternoon.

It is a major event and public holiday in Melbourne. But more than that, all of Australia stops for the live telecast of this internationally famous horse race. It’s one of those defining Australian icons.

Getting ready for the Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is a handicapped race over 3200 meters. This means that the better the horse is, the more weight it has to carry in the race.

‘Sweeps’ are held by just about every group of people. This is not so much a betting system, but a lottery where every player gets a ticket of a randomly drawn horse – and a prize if this comes into the first three places.

The Melbourne Cup is the culmination of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is a prime time also for parties, luncheons, alcohol, huge hats and racetrack fashions...

Famous Melbourne Cup Winners

1861, a horse called Archer won the first Melbourne Cup in 3:52, the slowest Melbourne Cup ever run . He then proceeded to win the next one as well.

Dressed for the Melbourne Cup

1930, Phar Lap became the most famous and most loved Australian race horse. He had also come second the previous year and eights the next year. He died - possible poisoned - under suspicious circumstances in the US after winning an internationally important race there. Today you can look at Phar Lap’s body in the Melbourne museum. Here is a great story about his life.

1932 & 1934, Peter Pan – one of the few horses who won the Melbourne Cup twice.

1968 & 1969, Rain Lover, the first horse to win two races back to back. In 1968 he won in 3:19.1, the fastest time ever recorded for the 111 cups run over the imperial two-mile distance (the race track became metric and was shortened by 18 meters in 1972 - Rain Lover's time was adjusted to 3:17.9 for the new track).

1974 & 1975, Think Big – another back to back winner.

1990, Kingston Rule won the Melbourne Cup in the record time of 3:16.3 - a record that still stands today.

2003, 2004 & 2005, Makybe Diva made history by being the first horse to win the Melbourne Cup three times.

2006, Delta Blues, the first Japanese horse to win the Melbourne Cup.

2007, Efficient, a New Zealand horse and outsider to win an international but decimated Melbourne cup, because of Horse flu in other Australian states.

Here is the whole list of the over 145 Cup Winners.

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