Melbourne Cup is the highlight of Australian Racing calendar
- Written by News Co
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The Melbourne Cup in Australia is the race that ‘stops a nation’. The race itself is run at Flemington racecourse in Melbourne, over 2 miles and is open to three year old and older thoroughbred horses. The event has a set date its run every year which is the first Tuesday of the month of November. The race has a huge tradition and heritage in Australia having been first run in the 1860’s. Over the years the broadcast coverage and attraction of the race has grown and now the prize money on offer is up to $8 Million with new sponsor Lexus reaping the benefit of it’s connection with the race.
Over the years there has been so many records broken and a few of them still stand today. One horse has won the race three times and that was Makybe Diva who won three straight Melbourne Cup races from 2003-2005. Two jockeys have won the race 4 times and they include Harry White from 1974-79 and the jockey on Makybe Diva each time was Glen Boss.
Attendances at the Melbourne Cup are absolutely massive. For 10 years in a row there was over 100,000 racegoers at the racecourse which to watch the race and enjoy the festivities. TV audiences peaked at over 2 million on the Seven Network in the mid-2000s and more recently with a change of TV coverage to Network 10, auidences are around 1.4 million.
Looking at this year’s Melbourne Cup and the winner of a thrilling race came from Europe as Twilight Payment finished first past the post. Trained by Joseph O’Brien, the son of legendary flat racing trainer Aiden O’Brien won the biggest prize in his young career.
Twilight Payment is a veteran on the track as he 7 year old horse won the biggest race of its career. The horse finished 11th in the Melbourne Cup the previous year and this year beat all rivals to land the big prize. Prior to winning this year’s race Twilight Payment had run over 1 mile 6 furlongs in Ireland at the Curragh winning a Group 2 and Group 3 race, and after making the trip around the world, came up trumps this year at Flemington.
At odds of 25/1 (26.0) Twilight Payment was ridden by local jockey Jye McNeil rode a superb race and stretched a lead coming to the final bend and managed to hold onto victory as others closed in, but the finishing line came just in time. Second in the race was Tiger Moth, who is trained by Aiden O’Brien, so as a family, they trained the 1-2 in the race, which is another new record.
Tiger Month started the race as one of the likely winners at odds of 11/2 (6.5) and had a good position throughout, but just didn’t have the finishing touch to pip his head in at the finishing line. Ridden by veteran jockey Kerrin McEvoy, it was a disappointing for him not to win the race but having given the leader too much of a lead, it was always going to be tough to win.
Third in this year’s Melbourne Cup was Prince of Arran, who like Tiger Moth was one of the favourites coming into the race as was 17/2 (9.5) when the race went off. Trainer Charlie Fellowes and jockey Jamie Kah were full of praise for the horse and will hope to go one better in 2021 should the horse be healthy.
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Australia has racing throughout the year where sportsbook reviews covers all the key races and the top sportsbooks will have all the odds on these races where punters can place their bets.
