Melbourne Cup Day is celebrated Australia-wide as a national holiday of sorts. The minute the famous horse race begins the nation comes to a stand-still. Workers drop their tools in anticipation of the race that starts at 3pm sharp, and we wait with bated breath whether our sweepstakes have paid off or not.

History of Melbourne Cup:
It all started back in 1861 when on November 7 a total of 17 horses raced for the first ever Melbourne Cup Day. The first prize was a hand beaten gold watch and £170 in prize money. Archer was the first winner ever of this race that has continued to delight a nation ever since. Archer, the winning horse took a full 3:52 to cross the final line after two miles of hard racing, which makes this the slowest win in the history of the Melbourne Cup.

Then in 1916 the actual Cup was first presented to a winner on race day to all Melbourne Cup winners thereafter. Melbourne Cup Day also got its regular slot in 1875 when race officials selected to move the date to the first Tuesday each November. Back then some 4000 spectators attended the now world famous race and over the next 10 years race day saw a crowd of 100,000.

Melbourne Cup Day’s biggest attendance numbers:
To date the biggest numbers seen on Melbourne Cup Day were back in 2000 when over 120,000 people visited Flemington Racecourse, Victoria’s prestigious racing club and saw ‘Brew’ race over the finish line first. Then a few years later, in 1972 the Melbourne Cup thoroughbred horse race was converted from the existing two mile distance to a metric distance of 3200 metres. This made it 18.69 metres short of two miles.

Melbourne Cup Winners:
A lot has happened since Archer won the first Melbourne Cup race back in 1861. These days the stakes are worth billions and people all over the nation invest their savings to bet on the famous race in order to pick up some of the sweepstakes. Some get it while most don’t.

Over the past five years, Cup Day has gotten even more exciting (if that is in any way possible,) and here are some of the Melbourne Cup winners of the past five years:

2008: Viewed
2007: Efficient
2006: Delta Blues
2005: Makybe Diva
2004: Makybe Diva

In the history of Melbourne Cup Day the most famous winner to date would have to be Phar Lap (1926–1932). Phar Lap became an Australian icon after winning the Melbourne Cup in 1930 amongst 13 others, during the great depression. After having won the prestigious Cup in 1930, he won two Cox Plate titles (another noteworthy Australian horse race,) and a total of 19 other titles in various races. Whilst in America Phar Lap unfortunatley died of a mysterious illness and conspiracy theories still point to American Mafia involvement.

Phar Lap is still one of the most revered thoroughbred horses in the world to this day.

Melbourne Cup day celebrities:
If you are looking for celebrities that have continued to influence horse trainers and fans all over the world it would have to be the likes of Phar Lap, Makybe Diva and of course Bart Cummings, the charismatic ‘Cup King’ who has won the Melbourne Cup as a trainer a staggering 12 times.

To date Cummings raced a record 78 runners on Melbourne Cup Day, starting in 1958. Thanks to a flourishing racing career that is still ongoing Cummings was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1991. His last win was last year when his horse ‘Viewed’ won the race on Melbourne Cup Day.

If you would like to know more about the Melbourne Cup and the Horses participating in the 2009 race be sure to take a look at our odds table for up to date online betting options, make your winning bet with Sport Bet!