Melbourne Cup Trivia

• Before Australia and the Melbourne Cup converted to the metric system, the race record for the Melbourne Cup was a scorching 3 minutes and 19 seconds over a distance of 2 miles.
• In 1972 the Melbourne Cup was modified to reflect the change to the metric system. The race distance was set at 3200 meters, almost 19 meters short of the original 2 mile distance. The record for the metric distance is held by Rain Lover.
• The first rider to win the Melbourne Cup was an aboriginal Australian by the name of 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.