If there’s one word we can use to describe the Melbourne Cup, it’s divisive.
The “race that stops a nation” rolls around on the first Tuesday of each November.
Earning its own public holiday in Victoria, the Melbourne Cup is one of Australia’s most iconic sporting events, attracting celebrities and travellers from around the world.
Around 90,000 people are expected to be at Melbourne’s Flemington racecourse for the race.
But amidst the festive spirit there is controversy. Over the past decade, seven horses have died on Melbourne Cup day.
For Dr Wayne Peake, adjunct research fellow at Western Sydney University, attending the Melbourne Cup was always one of his fondest memories growing up.
“We thought about it all week,” he tells SBS News.
“When I was at school, all but a few of the teachers, mainly maths teachers, would stop the class to listen to the Cup.”
But Peake says public sentiment toward the Cup has shifted in recent years: “I don’t think it happens to the same extent anymore,” he said.
While the race has been marred with controversy, plenty of Australians still throw their support around the Cup (and not just for the public holiday).
The Fashions on the Field competition is a big draw card for the Melbourne Cup. Source: Getty / Asanka Ratnayake
What does Melbourne Cup mean for fashionistas?
For fashionistas, the Melbourne Cup has always been one of the biggest events of the year.
Attendees don their best suits, frocks, and most elaborate fascinators (decorative headpiece) as part of the festivities. The Fashion on the Field competition is a big attraction, with extensive television coverage and prizes awarded to the best dressed.
It’s as much of a drawcard as the race itself.
The fashion is one buzzy part of the Cup that people are drawn to.
Phil McManus is a professor of Urban and Environmental Geography at the University of Sydney and studies the global horseracing industry. He says a large reason why people are attracted to the races is because of the colour and adrenaline of the day.
“People are attracted to go to the races, partly because the industry is attracting young people,” McManus told SBS News.
“It’s a social occasion. It’s a get-together with your friends. It’s about colour, it’s about Fashions on the Field, it’s about bringing excitement to people … it’s something stylish and glamorous.”
There is also a lot of drinking involved — an estimated 45,000 bottles of champagne are consumed at the Melbourne Cup, as well as tens of thousands of litres of beer.
Punters at the Melbourne Cup in the year 2000. Source: Getty / Andrew Hanos
What does Melbourne Cup mean for punters?
While there are concerns about interest waning in the Melbourne Cup, punters are still coming out in full swing.
Typically one of the biggest days on bookmakers’ calendars, the Melbourne Cup continues to dominate bets. The Cup has generated more than $1 billion in turnover over the last five years.
The total prize money for this year’s race is $8.56 million, with the winner getting $4.4 million. The Cup is the richest handicap horse race in the world.
“The betting on Melbourne Cup is as strong as ever,” Peake said.
McManus said part of the “thrill” of the race is because of gambling.
“There’s an adrenaline rush watching the horses and the racing … it’s certainly exciting, so I can see why people are attracted to it.”
While attendance has dropped off since the Cup’s peak in 2003 which saw 122,736 attendees, compared to the estimated 90,000 this year, Peake says other races like the Cox Plate, The Everest, and The Golden Eagle are going “from strength to strength”.
But associate professor Charles Livingstone, Head of the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine’s Gambling and Social Determinants Unit, is concerned the Melbourne Cup is used as a “vehicle to promote gambling”.
“The racing and sporting events are one thing, but the way they have been tied almost inextricably to gambling has become something that many people not only find offensive, but also very worrying.”
While Livingstone says it might be feasible in the future to separate sporting events from gambling, he’s not too sure that the same will extend to horse racing: “Horse racing basically exists because people gamble on it.”
It’s one part of the growing resistance towards the Cup.
Red Cadeaux was put down in 2015 after failing to recover from a serious leg injury, preventing it from finishing the Melbourne Cup race. Source: AAP / Tracey Nearmy
What does it mean to animal rights activists?
Resistance to the Melbourne Cup has grown recently, with people turning off the race altogether.
Growing activism online has led to thriving social media movements like #Nuptothecup. Starting initially as a petition in 2010 to draw attention to the mistreatment of horses, the campaign has evolved to call for the race to be shut down entirely around concerns of animal cruelty, both on and off the field.
The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses released their DeathWatch report for 2024 this week and found that 151 racehorses in Australia died during 2023-2024.
1,400 horses have died on racetracks in the past decade.
In the past decade, six horses have died in the Melbourne Cup race, with another dying on Cup day. Last year, two-year-old horse, Rejuvenated, died after falling on the track.
On Tuesday morning, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi called for horse racing to be shut down and put in the “dustbin of history”.
“More and more people are saying ‘Nup to the Cup’ every year and fewer and fewer people are watching it. The only reason this carnival of cruelty goes on is because gambling companies make a windfall and they bankroll the two major parties into silence,” Faruqi said in a statement.
“The Melbourne Cup epitomises the farce of the horse racing industry in a single day: a shameful cocktail of animal cruelty, gambling harm, corporate profits and dirty donations.
Peake says the very public death of horses hasn’t “helped” the Cup and predicts that “somewhere down the line”, horse racing will stop altogether.
But if it does, he says it will be the “death of a thousand cuts”.
Peake says the implications of the closure of horse racing would affect the country in multiple ways, fearing a loss of employment for many people and the disappearance of thoroughbred horse breeds.
“Horse racing is still the second or third biggest industry in the country. So it has an enormous impact on the country’s economy.”
The Melbourne Cup has been considered the “race that stops a nation” since it’s inception in 1861. Pictured: Horses racing in the 1967 Cup. Source: Getty / Central Press
Why is the Melbourne Cup a public holiday in Victoria anyway?
Since the Cup’s inception in 1861, it’s been touted as the race that stops a nation.
So much so, people have historically taken time off work, clocked off their lunches early, or paused school lessons to watch the race at 3pm.
As early as 1865, Cup Day was a half-holiday in Melbourne for public servants, with many businesses closing at lunchtime for the event.
In 1876, the Melbourne Cup officially became a public holiday in Victoria, although some local councils organise alternate public holidays for their own respective cups, including Bendigo Cup Day and Geelong Cup.
While interest in the cup is waning, these days, Victorians might use the day to soak up the spring weather, just as much as they are to watch the race.
