The race that stops a nation

The Melbourne Cup is known as the day that stops a nation. During spring season in Australia, ‘spring racing carnival’ takes place in Melbourne which is a four day celebration with its main attraction being the Melbourne cup day, which takes place on the first Tuesday of November every year at Flemington racecourse. That day, the moment horses start to run in the Melbourne Cup race, the entire nation stops, in front of Televisions or Radios, at shops, Pubs or even on public transport. This day has always been a public holiday since 1870 allowing more Australians to gather at Flemington, and the Five million dollars worth Melbourne cup is 146 year old social and cultural tradition of Australia that attracts the best race horses and trainers from Australia and all over the world. Today, it draws more than 700 million of Television audience over 120 countries and even a larger audience and readers on the internet and printed papers.

History of Melbourne Cup

The first Melbourne cup took place in 1861. Four thousand people, a good crowd at that time, gathered at Flemington race grounds and seventeen horses ran the race, and one horse called Twilight started too early and two race horses called Dispatch and Medora fell and died. ‘Archer’ became a legendary horse not only because he came first that day, he had to walk over 580 miles from his home town in New South Wales to be a part of the race as at that time, there were no horse floats or horse carrier lorries available. It is rumored that the following year, Archer walked again from his home town to reach Melbourne and ran the race to become the champion for the second time. At the age of ten, Archer fell and got injured in a race and was retired to stud. His legendary story was portrayed in the 1984 movie ‘Archer’.

This year, more than 102,000 fans gathered at the Flemington grounds on Tuesday to see the best horses competing for the Melbourne cup. Also this year 397, 413, a second highest recorded number of spectators gathered at Flemington during the four day carnival. Along the race track, around the stalls and almost everywhere on the grounds rose bushes were covered with roses of various colours. Men and women were dressed in their best clothes, with feathers on ladies fashionable hats shining to the spring sun light and shaking to the wind. Champion horses were constantly on guard this year due to the Horse flue that consumed the country a few months ago. Champagne and wine glasses and empty bottles were lying everywhere on the ground, and some people were resting on picnic clothes laid on bare grass.

Despite the tragic horse influenza that consumed many potential Melbourne Cup runners in other states in Australia and also kept International raiders entering the country, a few English and New Zealand runners passed the extensive tests and were included. Horses, ‘Tungsten Strike’ and ‘Purple Moon’ were from England while ‘Mahler’ was from Ireland and ‘Railings’, ‘Sculptor’ and ‘Princess Coup’ was from New Zealand. Australian horse called ‘Master O’Reilly’ was the favorite to win after his impressive Caulfield Cup win just two weeks ago. Out of 24 runners, three horses were removed by their trainers from the race on the day after they became slightly ill and unsuitable to run.

When the twenty one horse gates opened with a huge thud at three O’clock on bright Tuesday afternoon, a crowd of over 102, 000 roared in to cheer while the rest of Australia came to a standstill in front of televisions and Radios. The most handsome and most achieved 21 horses started to run the course of 3200 metres Melbourne Cup while huge screens around the track showed close ups and Television cameras on Cars and Vans circled around the course while two televions helicopters were closing in from the skies.

Two Ambulances with medics and two cars with Vets also travelled next to horses from outside the rail keeping a close eye for any falls and injuries. The distance between the closing and the horses became less and less, and the mighty gallops became louder and louder shaking the ground and raising the heartbeats of screaming fans. The Irish horse ‘Mahler’ led the crowd of sporting heroes and when it was only a minute away the English horse ‘Purple Moon’ came to the lead and kept his distance bravely. Just as the finishing line was a few seconds away, a grey Australian horse called ‘Efficient’ dashed out of the crowd and pushed himself forward in a flash to claim the Melbourne Cup. Crowd screamed in madness while ‘Micheal Rodd’ the young Jockey on ‘Efficient’ saluted to the crowd and then broke down in tears.

The brave English horse ‘Purple Moon’ followed to win the second place while Irish ‘Mahler’ came third. ‘Zipping’ was fourth while the country horse ‘Dolphin Jo’ came fifth, followed by ‘On a Jeune’, ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Master O’Reilly’, ‘Sculptor’ and ‘Lazer Sharp’ that came to win prize money until the tenth place. Another great sporting day in the world watched by billions was won with magnificent horse power.