The Melbourne Cup is known as the race that stops a nation. You can't get greater glory in Australian horse racing than becoming one of the Melbourne Cup winners.

For a lot of people around the globe, racing horses is such a pleasurable activity that they will go and travel to different countries to be able to compete in one of the top races of the world. They don't get bothered even it would cost them a lot since to compete with the best and hoping to win against them is such an exciting venture that should not be missed by anyone who loves to race horses. One such event that brings the whole world together to watch it is called the Melbourne Cup. This is one race that brings the nation into a halt. Race horses coming from different countries compete with each other for the most coveted cup of the Spring Carnival racing season.

Lately we have seen some international success with winners coming from different countries such as Japan and New Zealand. A lot of countries have already proven their worth in contributing to the steep competition that the sport has now to offer. In Melbourne, you can expect the whole city to stop on its usual busy routines since almost every one will go to places where they can watch the thoroughbred horses compete against each other on the race track. People will often go to bars where they televise the event live, stay at their place for a live feed, and most of them would prefer to watch it live at the horse racing track. The Cup day is considered to be a day off for all the people in the Melbourne CBD, but also for many businesses in Victoria. There are not that many countries declaring a public holiday for a sports event, so this says something about the significance of sports for Australia!

This is the day where you will see people betting their hearts out on their favorite horses. In fact millions and millions of dollars are actually placed on bets at this particular day in Melbourne. There are always straight out favourites, but unlike many of the shorter races, they don't often turn out to be the actual winners! So a great day to have a punt and try to get away with some winnings. With our family we always put some money on seven or eight horses. We often back the final winner, but because we support so many it is not a profit generating enterprise...

Being a winner of this race then brings a certain level of honor for the trainer and the owner of the horse. The first ever declared Melbourne cup winner was a horse named Archer in the year 1861.

It is interesting to know that a lot of enthusiasts would say that it was the slowest Melbourne cup ever run in history however, the same horse also was declared winner of the cup the following year. After which many horses from around the world followed his footsteps and made themselves famous as well.

1930 was the year when the most famous and most loved Australian race horse won named Phar Lap. He finished landing on the second spot the previous year and landed on the eight spot the following year. His body is found today at the Melbourne Museum where you can read his story.

There was actually a bit of a controversy surrounding his death. It happened on US soil after winning a very prestigious international event. He was allegedly poisoned. Now the common theory however is that the poison in his body was given to him by his trainer. The special potion he received to optimally prepare him for races contained poisonous substances in too large quantity. Other famous horses include Kingston Rule who won the cup in 1990 in a record 3:16.3 which is still a record that has not been surpassed; Makybe Diva who was the first horse to ever grabbed the cup in three consecutive years 2003, 2004, 2005; and in 2006 the first ever Japanese horse named Delta Blues won the event.

A very successful horse trainer is Bart cummings. Many people bet on his horses under the credo "don't back the horse, back the trainer". He has prepared multiple Melbourne Cup winners and has been successful in the other Melbourne Spring Carnival races. These are some of the notable Melbourne cup winners recorded in the history books. When it gets to that first Tuesday in November, get a taste of the action, have a bbq with your friends and place a bet or two. You only have to put in a few dollars to make the race a lot more interesting. Let's hope you back one of the Melbourne cup winners!

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Want to find out more about the Melbourne Cup? Check out this page about the history of the Melbourne Cup on I Love Melbourne. I-Love-Melbourne.com is your website for anything Melbourne.