Melbourne Cup Trivia

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The Melbourne Cup was first run on 7th November 1861 over a distance of two miles.

The winner, Archer (6/1), there was 17 in the field. First prize was a gold watch and £170. Previous Winners

His was the slowest winning time yet recorded for the race (3:52). The Cup was first presented to a winner in 1916. Since 1875 the race has been run on the first Tuesday in November.

This Melbourne Cup race attracted just 4000 people.  Over the next 20 years over 100,000 people would come to see the race.

  • The first rider to win the Melbourne Cup was J. Cutts, who won consecutive races on Archer in 1861 and 1862.
  • Since J. Cutts took the first Melbourne Cup in 1861 jockeys have struggled to amass many wins in the race. The record for the number of Melbourne Cups won is four, and is shared by Bobbie Lewis and Harry White.
  • Carbine, the sire of the legendary Phar Lap, carried the heaviest weight to victory in the history of the Melbourne Cup. Melbourne Cup trivia tells us that this powerful horse carried 10 stone 5 pounds to win the 1890 Melbourne Cup.
  • Only five horses in the history of the Melbourne Cup have won the race more than once, including Archer, Peter Pan, Rain Lover, Think Big and three times Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva.
  • The Melbourne Cup has seen some massive upsets during its long history. Three horses have won the race at 100/1 odds, including The Pearl, Old Rowley and Wotan. The last horse to win the Melbourne Cup at long odds was Rimfire who won at 80/1 odds in 1948.
  • Favourites fare very well in the Melbourne Cup, considering the race is a handicap event. 34 favourites have won the Melbourne Cup with 66 finishing the race placed. The lowest priced winner of the Melbourne Cup was Phar Lap at 8/11 odds in 1930.
  • Eleven horses have captured the prestigious Caufileld Cup before going on to take the honours at the Melbourne Cup.
  • Foreign horses have sometimes struggled to adapt to the extreme weather conditions in Melbourne during the Spring Racing Carnival. Comedy King became the first horse to accomplish this feat in 1910. In 2003 Makybe Diva became only the 9 th foreign bred horse to win the Melbourne Cup, but did so in style by taking the winner's title three times.

The largest ever attendance was in 2003 when more than 122,736 people attended and saw Makybe Diva win the Melbourne Cup. In 1972 the race was converted to the metric distance of 3200 metres which is  18.69 metres or 61.30 feet short of  two miles.

The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most famous horse race and one of the major horse racing events throughout the world. The Melbourne Cup is known as The Race That Stops a Nation, taking place every year on the first Tuesday of November. Millions of Australians, in schools, at work, in their homes stand eyes glued to the television to watch a single horse race that lasts no more than a few minutes.

What makes the Melbourne Cup different from other horse races is that it is not just about racing - it's the atmosphere and the fashion and the parties. Naturally the Melbourne Cup is also the biggest single betting event in Australia.


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Find below other interesting Melbourne Cup trivia and facts about the great race.

MELBOURNE CUP RACE RECORD: 
Kingston Rule  1990 - 3 minutes 16.3 seconds

BIGGEST WINNING MARGINS:
8 lengths  -  Archer   1862  /  Rain Lover  1968

HIGHEST WINNING WEIGHT: 
10st 5 lb (65.5 kg)   Carbine
10st 2 lb (64.5 kg)   Archer
10st 0 lb  (63.5 kg)  Poitrel

LOWEST WINNING WEIGHT:
33.5kg, Banker 1863

HIGHEST WEIGHT CARRIED:
10st 10 lb (68 kg)   Phar Lap

Those most popular weight carried is 52.5kg with seven wins, followed by 53kgs and 49.5kgs with six wins each.

AGE OF WINNERS:                         
3 year old   -  23   (last 3yo - Skipton (1941)
4 year old   -   42
5 year old   -   42
6 year old   -   28
7 year old   -   10
8 year old   -   2

The last three-year-old to win the Cup was Skipton in 1941

SEX OF WINNER:
Entire 62
Gelding 48
Colts 19
Mares 13
Fillies 3

SHORTEST PRICED FAVOURITE:
8/11   Phar Lap   (1st  1930)

SHORTEST PRICED WINNING FAVOURITES
8/11   Phar Lap  (1st  1930)
7/4 Revnue (1908)
2/1 Archer (1862)

70 Cup favourites have finished in the first three placings.

The favourite has won 34 times.

LONGEST PRICED WINNERS
The Pearl 100/1 (1871)
Wotan 100/1 (1936)
Old Rowley  100/1 (1940)
Rimfire 80/1 (1948)

The longest priced winner in the last twenty years was Tawrrific in 1989 starting at 30/1.

ODDS:
10/1 - 14 Times
8/1 - 13 Times

DUAL WINNERS:
Archer   1861 - 62            
Peter Pan   1932 - 1934
Rain Lover    1968 - 69
Think Big   1974 - 75

TRIPLE WINNERS:
Makybe Diva 2003- 2005

SMALLEST FIELD:
7 starters 1863

LARGEST FIELD:
39 starters in 1890.

SUCCESSFUL JOCKEYS 4 WINS EACH:
Bobbie Lewis The Victory 1902, Patrobas 1915, Artilleryman 1919 & Trivalve 1927. Harry White Think Big 1974 and 1975, Arwon 1978 and Hyperno 1979

Harry White also holds a unique record of two Melbourne Cup doubles

Clare Lindop was the first Australian female to ride in the Cup when unplaced on Debben in 2003.

First (& only) Aboriginal jockey to win: Frank Reys (1973) on Gala Supreme

JOCKEYS COLOURS:
17 cup winning jockeys have worn black as their main colour. Last being George Podmore on Evening Peal in 1956.

Navy blue and royal blue with 14 wins

WINNERS OF THE CUP DOUBLES, MELBOURNE/CAULFIELD (11):
Poseidon 1906
The Trump 1937
Rivette 1939
Rising Fast 1954
Even Stevens 1962
Galilee 1966
Gurner's Lane 1982
Let's Elope1991
Doriemus1995
Might and Power 1997
Ethereal 2001

WINNING BARRIERS:
Barrier 11.... 6 winners
Barriers 5, 6 and 19..... 5 winners

Since the barrier stalls were first used in the Cup in 1924, no horse has won the race from barrier 18. In that year (1924), the winner Backwood started from barrier 7. In the 77 years since, no other winner has started from it.

MOST WINNING NUMBER:
No 4 with 11 wins
No 12 with 10 wins
No. 1 with 11 wins
No. 8 with 8 wins
No. 11 with 7 wins

Makybe Diva winning in 2005 wearing no.1. The last horse carrying no.1 prior to that was Rising Fast in 1954.

The least successful number is 21 which hasn't been worn by a Cup winner since Bitalli in 1923.

TAB numbers 3, 6 and 8 have won eight of the last fifteen Cups.

TAB numbers to win only two Cups are 7, 16, 18, and 23.

Historically the best guides to the Melbourne Cup have been the Caulfield Cup and the Mackinnon Stakes.

TRAINER WITH MOST WINS:
Bart Cummings 12 wins

Jim Cummings trained one Cup winner, Comic Court in 1950. In 1965 his son Bart trained  his first Melbourne Cup winner, the four year old mare Light Fingers. He last won the race in 2008 with Viewed.

Sheila Laxon was the first woman trainer to officially win the Melbourne Cup

PRIZE MONEY:
Melbourne Cup in 1861 was $1,420
Melbourne Cup in 2005 is $AU5.1 million

In 1985 the race reached $1 million dollars in prize money for the first time

TAB DIVIDENDS:
Record trifecta dividend on Melbourne Cup - $61,867.90 in 1993. NSW punters will bet more than $65 million on Cup day. Average spend per person is approximately $14, of which $12 is returned in dividends. The prize money for the first Cup in 1861 was 1,429 Pounds....

OTHER FACTS
The race has undergone several alterations over the past 10 years, the most visible being the arrival of many foreign-trained horses to contest the race in the last decade. Most have failed to cope with the conditions; the three successful "foreign raids" include two by Irish trainer Dermot K. Weld successful in 1993 and 2002, and one in 2006 by Katsumi Yoshida of Japan's renowned Yoshida racing and breeding family. The attraction for foreigners to compete was, primarily, the low-profile change to the new "quality handicap" weighting system.

The 1910 Melbourne Cup was won by Comedy King, the first foreign bred horse to do so. Subsequent foreign bred horses to win Cup were Backwood 1924; Belldale Ball 1980; At Talaq 1986; Kingston Rule 1990; Vintage Crop 1993; Jeune 1994; Media Puzzle 2002; Makybe Diva 2003, 2004, 2005

  • First woman owner to win Mrs E.A. Widdis (1915) with Patrobas
  • First female jockey to ride Maree Lynden (1987) on Argonaut Style
  • The Melbourne Cup was first filmed in 1896. This race was won by Newhaven.
  • The first radio broadcast of the Melbourne Cup was made by the Australian Broadcasting Company in 1925.
  • The photo finish camera was first used in the 1948 Melbourne Cup. Rimfire beat Dark Marne. However, many on-course punters believe the result should have been reversed, and it was later found that the camera was incorrectly aligned.
  • In 1882 the first bookmakers were licensed at Flemington
  • The race has been postponed twice because of rain - firstly in 1870 then in 1916.
  • The Melbourne Cup was raced on Saturdays during the war years.
  • Horses whose names start with I, Q, U, X and Y have never won the Cup.
  • Unlucky 'Shadow King' made six attempts to win the cup in seven years between 1929 and 1935. He came 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd and 4th.
  • In 1882 the first bookmakers were licensed at Flemington
  • 1931 was the first year the totalisator operated at the Melbourne Cup. The Totalisator Agency Board was introduced in 1961
  • There has never been a dead-heat for first in the Cup
  • 1931 was the first year the totalisator operated at the Melbourne Cup. The Totalisator Agency Board was introduced in 1961.

 

 

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