Melbourne Cup Trivia

The Melbourne Cup was first run on 7th November 1861 over a distance of two miles.

The winner, Archer (6/1), there was 17 in the field. First prize was a gold watch and £170. Melbourne Cup Previous Winners

His was the slowest winning time yet recorded for the race (3:52). The Cup was first presented to a winner in 1916. Since 1875 the race has been run on the first Tuesday in November.

This Melbourne Cup race attracted just 4000 people.  Over the next 20 years over 100,000 people would come to see the Melbourne Cup.

The largest ever attendance was in 2003 when more than 123,000 people attended and saw Makybe Diva win the Melbourne Cup.

In 1972 the Melbourne Cup was converted to the metric distance of 3200 metres which is 18.69 metres or 61.30 feet short of two miles.

MELBOURNE CUP RACE RECORD: 
Kingston Rule  1990 - 3 minutes 16.3 seconds

BIGGEST WINNING MARGINS:
8 lengths  -  Archer   1862  /  Rain Lover  1968

HIGHEST WINNING WEIGHT: 
10st 5 lb (66.0 kg)   Carbine
10st 2 lb (64.5 kg)   Archer
10st 0 lb  (63.5 kg)  Poitrel

LOWEST WINNING WEIGHT:
33.5kg, Banker 1863

HIGHEST WEIGHT CARRIED:
10st 10lb (68 kg) Phar Lap and lost
The most popular weight carried is 52.5kg and 53kg with eight wins each, followed by 47, 48, 51, and 56kgs each with seven wins.

AGE OF WINNERS:                         
3 year old   -   23   (last 3yo - Skipton (1941)
4 year old   -   43
5 year old   -   43
6 year old   -   28
7 year old   -   10
8 year old   -   2

The last three-year-old to win the Cup was Skipton in 1941

SEX OF WINNER:
Entire 63
Gelding 49
Colts 21
Mares 13
Fillies 3

SHORTEST PRICED FAVOURITE:
8/11 Phar Lap (1st  1930)

SHORTEST PRICED WINNING FAVOURITES
8/11 Phar Lap  (1st  1930)
7/4 Revnue (1908)
2/1 Archer (1862)

70 Cup favourites have finished in the first three placings.

The favourite has won 34 times.

LONGEST PRICED WINNERS (Longshots)
The Pearl 100/1 (1871)
Wotan 100/1 (1936)
Old Rowley  100/1 (1940)
Rimfire 80/1 (1948)

The longest priced winners in the last twenty years was Viewed at 40/1 in 2008 then Tawrrific in 1989 starting at 30/1.

ODDS:
10/1 - 15 Times
8/1 - 13 Times

DUAL WINNERS:
Archer   1861 - 62            
Peter Pan   1932 - 1934
Rain Lover    1968 - 69
Think Big   1974 - 75

TRIPLE WINNERS:
Makybe Diva 2003- 2005

SMALLEST FIELD:
7 starters 1863

LARGEST FIELD:
39 starters in 1890.

SUCCESSFUL JOCKEYS 4 WINS EACH:
Bobbie Lewis The Victory 1902, Patrobas 1915, Artilleryman 1919 & Trivalve 1927. Harry White Think Big 1974 and 1975, Arwon 1978 and Hyperno 1979

Harry White also holds a unique record of two Melbourne Cup doubles

Clare Lindop was the first Australian female to ride in the Cup when unplaced on Debben in 2003.

JOCKEYS COLOURS:
17 cup winning jockeys have worn black as their main colour. Last being George Podmore on Evening Peal in 1956.

Navy blue and royal blue with 14 wins

WINNERS OF THE CUP DOUBLES, MELBOURNE CUP/CAULFIELD CUP(11):
Poseidon 1906
The Trump 1937
Rivette 1939
Rising Fast 1954
Even Stevens 1962
Galilee 1966
Gurner's Lane 1982
Let's Elope1991
Doriemus 1995
Might and Power 1997
Ethereal 2001

WINNING BARRIERS:
Barriers 5, 10, 11 and 14....6 winners
Barriers 6, 8, and 19.....5 winners
Barriers 1, 4, 17 and 22....4 winners

Since the barrier stalls were first used in the Cup in 1924, no horse has won the race from barrier 18. In that year (1924), the winner Backwood started from barrier 7. In the 85 years since, Makybe Diva is the only other winner starting from that barrier winning in 2004.

MOST WINNING NUMBER:
No 4 and No 12 with 11 wins
No 1 with 10 wins
No 6 with 8 wins
No 8 and No 11 with 7 wins

Makybe Diva winning in 2005 wearing no.1. The last horse carrying no.1 prior to that was Rising Fast in 1954.

TAB numbers 4 and 6 have won four of the last fifteen Cups.

TAB numbers to win only one Cup are 26, 28 and 39.

TAB numbers to win only two Cups are 7, 16, 18, 21, 23 and 25.

Historically the best guides to the Melbourne Cup have been the Caulfield Cup and the Mackinnon Stakes.

TRAINER WITH MOST WINS:
Bart Cummings 12 wins

Jim Cummings trained one Cup winner, Comic Court in 1950. In 1965 his son Bart trained  his first Melbourne Cup winner, the four year old mare Light Fingers. He last won the race in 2008 with Viewed.

Sheila Laxon was the first woman trainer to officially win the Melbourne Cup

PRIZE MONEY:
Melbourne Cup in 1861 was $1,420
Melbourne Cup in 2005 was $AU5.1 million
Melbourne Cup in 2009 is $5.65 million

The 2010 Melbourne Cup is expected to offer nearly double the prize money of this year's race, with stakes tipped to be set at an unbelievable $10 million to celebrate th 150th running of the race.

In 1985 the race reached $1 million dollars in prize money for the first time

MELBOURNE CUP TROPHY FACTS:
1861 - The trophy took the form of a "hand beaten" gold watch
1865 - The first year a trophy was awarded. Silver bowl on a stand with a narrow neck with two ornate handles topped with a horse and rider
1867 - A silver trophy from England displays 'Alexander Taming the Horse
1868 - 1875 No mention of trophy presented
1876 - The first gold cup trophy manufactured in Victoria
1877 - 1886 No trophy presented
1887 - Dunlop A golden horse-shoe mounted on a plush stand and valued at 100 sovereigns
1888 - Three silver horses on a silver plated base
1889 - The silver "tea and coffee service" reputed to have been unacceptable as a trophy
1890 - A silver ewer, salver and tazzas are representative of this magnificent trophy.
1891 - A trophy measuring two feet in length and fifteen inches high of a draped figure of Victory, standing on a pedestal, holding out an olive wreath to a jockey upon his horse
1893 - Multi-piece trophy of silver tankard, punch bowl and beakers
1894 - 1898 Trophies were not presented as the economic depression engulfed the nation
1900 - A tea and coffee service was presented
1908 - Three feet long plaque of an embossed silver galloping horse, that some people thought resembled a greyhound. A much ridiculed design for trophy
1909 - 1911 - Two handled silver cups
1913 - Silver epergne
1914 - This was the last year the Melbourne Cup Trophy was made in England. It had a long base with a horse on each end facing out and a chalice cup in the centre
1915 - A large rose bowl that was made in Australia
1916 - The first gold cup is presented
1918 - Two handled gold cup trophy
1919 - James Steeth's three handled "loving cup" first introduced
1922 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at 200 pounds
1953 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at 550 pounds
1960 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at 750 pounds
1973 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $3000. Smaller Melbourne Cup miniatures are presented to the winning trainer and jockey
1978 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $9000
1984 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $23 000
1987 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $32 000
1999 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $32 500
2000 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $32 500
2001 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $80 000. The Cup moves from 9ct to 18ct gold. Valued at $80,000. A 2/3 height miniature of the Cup is presented to the trainer and jockey
2005 - The breeder of the Cup winner will be presented with a Melbourne Cup ½ sized Cup
2006 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $100 000
2008 - The Melbourne Cup trophy valued at $125 000

The Cup is made up of 34 pieces of hand-beaten eighteen carat gold and a lathe-produced base. Every year the Melbourne Cup trophy is awarded as a prize.

TAB DIVIDENDS:
Record trifectas dividend on the Melbourne Cup - $61,867.90 in 1993.
2009 punters across the country splurged on Tuesday's Melbourne Cup with a record $95.6 million outlaid on the Victorian and NSW TABs. Average spend per person is approximately $8.50, of which $7.30 is returned in dividends. The prize money for the first Cup in 1861 was 1,420 Pounds.