[6] The race is a quality handicap for horses three years old and older, run over a distance of 3200 metres, on the first Tuesday in November at Flemington Racecourse.

[7] The Melbourne Cup race is a handicap contest in which the weight of the jockey and riding gear is adjusted with ballast to a nominated figure.

The field is selected based on a range of factors, including each horse's age, weight, and previous racing performance.

[25] The Tour has visited schools and aged-care and hospital facilities, and participated in community events and celebrations including race days across Australia and New Zealand.

A large crowd of 4,000 men and women watched the race, although it has been suggested this was less than expected because of news reaching Melbourne of the death of explorers Burke and Wills[27] five days earlier on 2 November.

Nevertheless, the attendance was the largest at Flemington on any day for the past two years, with the exception of the recently run Two Thousand Guinea Stakes.

[31][32][33] The inaugural Melbourne Cup of 1861 was an eventful affair when one horse bolted before the start, and three of the seventeen starters fell during the race, two of which died.

Archer, a Sydney outsider who drew scant favour in the betting, spread-eagled the field and defeated the favourite, and Victorian champion, Mormon by six lengths.

It has become legend that Archer walked over 800 km (over 500 miles) to Flemington from de Mestre's stable at "Terara" near Nowra, New South Wales.

Archer had already won the 1862 AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Randwick, Sydney, and returned to win his second Melbourne Cup carrying 10 stone 2 pounds.

In protest of this decision and in a show of solidarity, many of de Mestre's owners boycotted the third race and scratched their horses in sympathy.

The Gazette of 31 October 1873 announced that the following Thursday (Cup Day) be observed as a bank and civil (public) service holiday.

In 1876 at the recorded age thirteen (he was actually twelve, being 8 days short of his thirteenth birthday),[43] Peter St Albans is also the youngest person ever to win a Melbourne Cup.

Shouts and hurrahs were heard, hats were thrown in the air and one excited individual fell on his back in the attempt to do a somersault.

The following day the ship ran into a savage storm and was hit by several rogue waves, with Nemesis (the winner of the 1876 AJC Metropolitan Handicap in Randwick, Sydney and favourite for the Cup, owned by John Moffat) and Robin Hood (another favourite, owned by Etienne de Mestre) being among the 11 horses that were killed.

To the dismay and anger of the public, bookmakers, showing no feeling, presented a purse (loaded with coins) to the captain as token of their appreciation for his part in saving them many thousands of pounds in bets already laid on the favourites who had perished.

1877 is also the year that the trainer Etienne de Mestre won his fourth Melbourne Cup with Chester owned by Hon.

James White) the previous year's winner who fell, and Calamia (owned by de Mestre) who, though less fancied, won easily[45] by two lengths.

In 1883, the hardy New Zealand bred, Martini-Henry won the VRC Derby, the Melbourne Cup and on the following Monday retained his undefeated record by winning Mares' Produce Stakes.

[46] Phar Lap, the most famous horse in the world of his day,[47] won the 1930 Melbourne Cup at 11/8 odds on, the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the race.

The first jockey of Indigenous heritage to ride a Melbourne Cup winner was Frank Reys in 1973 on Gala Supreme, who had a Filipino father and a half-Aboriginal mother.

Subsequent foreign-bred horses to win Cup were Backwood, 1924; Phar Lap, 1930; Wotan, 1936; Beldale Ball, 1980; At Talaq, 1986; Kingston Rule, 1990; Vintage Crop, 1993; Jeune, 1994; Media Puzzle, 2002; Makybe Diva, 2003, 2004, 2005; Americain, 2010; and Dunaden, 2011.

Maree Lyndon became the first female to ride in the Melbourne Cup, when she partnered Argonaut Style in 1987, in which she ran second-last place in the 21-horse field.

Due to the 2007 Australian equine influenza outbreak, believed to have been started by a horse brought into Australia from Japan, neither Delta Blues nor Pop Rock participated in the 2007 Melbourne Cup.

In 2013, Damien Oliver returned from an eight-month ban, after betting against his own mount at a previous race meet, to win his 3rd Melbourne cup.

The 2019 Melbourne Cup was overshadowed by recent news of the ill treatment of horses in the Australian racing industry,[62][63] and by the pulling out of celebrities including Taylor Swift,[64] Megan Gale,[65] and X-Men actress Lana Condor.

[84] The Melbourne cup captures the public's imagination to the extent that people, whether at work, home, school, or out and about, usually stop to watch or listen to the race.

The Gazette of 31 October 1873[85] announced that the following Thursday (Cup Day) be observed as a bank and civil (public) service holiday.

[92] Every year more and more people travel to Flemington Racecourse; in 2016, there was a 7.8 per cent increase in the number of out-of-state individuals (80,472) attending the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

The miniskirt received worldwide publicity when model Jean Shrimpton wore a white shift version of one on Derby Day during Melbourne Cup week in 1965.