It is an Open Handicap for thoroughbred racehorses competed on the flat turf over 3200 metres (two miles) at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand.

At the Summer Meeting of 1874 the Auckland Cup was run on Boxing Day over a distance of two miles and in subsequent published records of the club this race is shown as being the first official, recognised Auckland Cup contest.

The day was reviewed positively in the 28 December issue of the New Zealand Herald,[3] and was found to be absent of ‘sheanannaking’ and ‘hanky-panky’ and that everything was ‘above-board’ and ‘up hill and down straight’.

[4] In 1898 W H Bartlett filmed Uhlan winning the Auckland Cup at Ellerslie Racecourse for the entrepreneur Alfred Henry Whitehouse.

It is typically the second-to-last race run on the final day of Auckland Cup Week.