All you need to know about Melbourne Cup 2020 Melbourne, Australia is considered to offer one of the best lifestyles of any city in the world. When it comes to people and leisure, Melbourne is also one of the best places in the world to go visit. The city of Melbourne is also home to The Melbourne Cup, one of the greatest horse racing carnivals in the world. The carnival lasts for an entire week from Saturday to Saturday with the big race itself taking place annually on the first Tuesday in November, right in the middle of the carnival. Besides the huge crowds that flock to Flemington Racecourse to watch the race almost the entire population of Australia tunes in for the race and places a bet on the outcome some choosing to use online bookmakers such as Bovada sign up or the more traditional tote system called the TAB. In recent years the solid gold Lexus Melbourne Cup has been taken on a tour of both Australia and other countries around the world in advance of the big race both to promote the event and raise money for local charities. This year is due to be the eighteenth consecutive year of the tour but final details of the destinations the Cup will travel to have yet to be released The Melbourne Cup Tour Sweep Each year the Cup is brought to 24 rural and regional destinations around Australia and each of those communities is allocated a barrier or stall position for a sweep that is run on the actual race in November. Whichever community draws the same barrier that the horse comes out of that wins the 2020 Melbourne Cup will receive a A$50,000 donation for a registered charity of their choice. Cup Records Makybe Diva holds the record as the only three-time winner of the Melbourne Cup. The British-bred mare won the race in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Legendary Australian trainer Bart Cummings holds the record for the most wins in the race having accumulated a remarkable twelve victories between 1965 and 2008. Two jockeys jointly hold the record for the most wins in the race with four each, Bobbie Lewis (1902, 1915, 1919 and 1927) and Harry White (1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979). Michelle Payne (2015) is the only female rider to win the race in its 159 year history. The first European trained winner of the race was the Dermot Weld trained Vintage Crop in 1993. The field for the Melbourne Cup is capped at 24 runners but the record number of horses to take part in the race was 39 in 1890. The last three-year-old horse to win the race was Skipton in 1941 which doesn’t bode well for the recent South Australian Derby winner Russian Camelot which currently heads the market for this year’s renewal which takes place on Tuesday November 3 2020.
