Melbourne Cup Winners
& Spring Racing Carnival

Being one of the Melbourne cup winners is the dream of punters, horse owners, trainers and jockeys on Melbourne Cup Day - the first Tuesday in November.

Many Melburnians flock to Flemington on the Cup morning. Races are held throughout the day, culminating in the main race in the afternoon.

It is a major event and public holiday in Melbourne. But more than that, all of Australia stops for the live telecast of this internationally famous horse race. It’s one of those defining Australian icons.

‘Sweeps’ are held by just about every group of people. This is not so much a betting system, but a lottery where every player gets a ticket of a randomly drawn horse – and a prize if this comes into the first three places.

The Melbourne Cup is the culmination of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is a prime time also for parties, luncheons, alcohol, huge hats and racetrack fashions...

Famous Melbourne Cup Winners

1861, a horse called Archer won the first Melbourne Cup in 3:52, the slowest Melbourne Cup ever run . He then proceeded to win the next one as well.

1930, Phar Lap became the most famous and most loved Australian race horse. He had also come second the previous year and eights the next year. He died - possible poisoned - under suspicious circumstances in the US after winning an internationally important race there. Today you can look at Phar Lap’s body in the Melbourne museum. Here is a great story about his life.

1932 & 1934, Peter Pan – one of the few horses who won the Melbourne Cup twice.

1968 & 1969, Rain Lover, the first horse to win two races back to back. In 1968 he won in 3:19.1, the fastest time ever recorded for the 111 cups run over the imperial two-mile distance (the race track became metric and was shortened by 18 meters in 1972 - Rain Lover's time was adjusted to 3:17.9 for the new track).

1974 & 1975, Think Big – another back to back winner.

1990, Kingston Rule won the Melbourne Cup in the record time of 3:16.3 - a record that still stands today.

2003, 2004 & 2005, Makybe Diva made history by being the first horse to win the Melbourne Cup three times.

2006, Delta Blues, the first Japanese horse to win the Melbourne Cup.

2007, Efficient, a New Zealand horse and outsider to win an international but decimated Melbourne cup, because of Horse flu in other Australian states.

2008 was won by Viewed with jockey Blake Shinn and trained by Bart Cummings. This was Bart Cummings 12th win, with the first one being in 1965.

The 2009 Melbourne Cup was won by Shocking.

2010, the Australian favourite, Bart Cummings' So You Think was outstayed by the French horse Americain, the third European horse to win in Melbourne.

2011, the French horse, Dunaden won by a nostril width in front of the English Red Cadeaux, leaving the Australian horses again behind in the field.

2012, leaving all the favourites without even a place, Green Moon won the cup with jockey Brett Pebble.

Here is the whole list of the all Cup Winners.