Early History Of The Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is one of the most important events on the Australian calendar and it is affectionately known as the race that stops the nation. From humble beginnings it has risen to become the most watched sporting event in Australia and has garnered international acclaim as the greatest 3200 meter handicap horse race anywhere in the world. Since beginning in 1861 with a small crowd of 4000 it now attracts an international audience as well as global horses coming to try for success and substantial race winnings.
The Cup is run at the Flemington Racetrack, which is just 15 minutes from the Melbourne central business district. Originally the race was a pretty primitive affair, but it quickly became one of “the” social events on the calendar and became a chance for society ladies to show off their finest fashions combined with garden and lawn parties.
AT first the cup was run on a Thursday, but it was changed to a Tuesday in 1875 and has been run on that day ever since. The race is always held on the first Tuesday in November. By the time that the day of the race was changed the annual crowds turning up to Flemington were exceeding 100,000 an amazing number considering that the population of Melbourne at that time was a mere 300,000.
At the close of the 19th century Australia suffered a huge economic crisis and more than a third of people were out of the workforce and unemployed. As an indication of the hard financial times there was no cup trophy presented between the years of 1894 and 1898.
When the 20th century arrived Melbourne was recovering from the economic battering along with the rest of Australia. This carefree period was to be brief however, with World War I just over the horizon. In 1906 the horse called Poseidon became a household name as it became the first horse in the history of the race to win the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, AJC and VRC Derby all in the same racing season.
In 1930 Phar Lap entered the public conscious and became the most famous cup winner in its entire history. The odds that Phar Lap had coming into the Melbourne Cup in 1930 were the lowest odds that have ever been put on a horse in the cup’s history – 11/8. At a time during the Great Depression when few people had any money people put their last few coins on the horse and were rewarded as it thrashed the competition. At the time Phar Lap was the greatest race horse in the world, but it was to meet a suspicious fate in 1932 when it was found dead in California.
In 1946 the photo finish was added to the race and it was needed in 1948 to determine Ray Neville as the winning jockey. He was a 15 year old that had only had 9 previous rides.
The Melbourne Cup has over its long history become an important element of Australian culture and it is looked forward to by masses of sporting and fashion fans each year.
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