Power and Pedigree

The Melbourne Cup is, without doubt, one of the richest and most prestigious horse races in the world. Diana Khoo reports from Flemington on the occasion of its recent 150th running.

"There’s no festival on earth like the Melbourne Cup,” quips celebrated Irish jockey Mick Kinane.

And he’s right. Touted as ‘Australia’s greatest race’, the Melbourne Cup certainly holds its own in a league that includes the English Derby and the Kentucky Derby.

Attracting an average of 100,000 people each day over a week of equine-themed festivities, it also fully lives up to its tagline of ‘the race that stops a nation’, where, at 1500hrs sharp, the whole of Australia comes to a standstill and the world’s eyes fall on Flemington as the running of the Cup begins.

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