The race that stops a nation has finally arrived! It’s Melbourne Cup day and The Roar has you covered with everything you could possibly need to know about the race in one place so you can be prepared for 3pm (AEDT) this afternoon and not miss a moment.
More 2017 Melbourne Cup
» Race report: Rekindling wins
» Who came last
» Complete finishing order
» Watch video highlights replay
» Re-live the race with our live blog
» Regal Monarch’s horror fall
» Winning trifecta and quinella
» Winning exact and first four
While there are ten races on the card for the day, the Melbourne Cup itself starts at 3pm (AEDT). The race will be over in a matter of minutes though.
The Melbourne Cup, as always is being held at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It’s located just to the north of the CBD, just across the Maribyrnong river from Footscray Park and Victoria University.
The race is over in minutes. It’s run over a distance of 3200 metres, which alongside the Sydney Cup is the longest Group 1 race in Australia. It typically takes around three and a half minutes, with the record belonging to 1990 winner Kingston Rule, who set a time of 3:16:30.
There are multiple ways you can watch the race on TV. The first of those is on the Seven Network. They are broadcasting live all day from Flemington.
Racing.com, which can be found on both free-to-air TV and Foxtel will also broadcast the race and others from around the country, as will Foxtel exclusive channel Sky Racing, however, it will be on delay as Channel 7 have exclusive rights to show the race live.
As with the TV coverage, there are multiple ways to stream the race online. The first way will be to stream Channel Seven’s coverage on their 7live website or application. It allows you to stream the channels of seven for free, meaning Racing.com will also be available in this way.
If you want to watch the day’s coverage on Sky Racing, you will need to use Foxtel Now or the Foxtel app.
You can also stream the action through Twitter or multiple betting companies like Sportsbet.com.au, CrownBet.com.au or Ladbrokes.com.au.
For a more detailed guide on live streaming the race, click here.
On The Roar of course. We are running a live blog all day long. We will cover all ten races, the news, updates and information from Flemington as it happens throughout the course of the day.
Look, let’s just say it’s going to be a typical Melbourne day. Rain in the morning will turn into a cool day, but the good news is that it should be dried up in time for the big race. The temperature isn’t expected to rise above 16 degrees.
This is Australia’s richest horse race and the fifth richest in the world, with the total purse totalling a whopping $6.2 million.
Here is a complete breakdown of how that’s awarded.
Place | Prizemoney |
First | $3,600,000 |
Second | $900,000 |
Third | $450,000 |
Fourth | $250,000 |
Fifth | $175,000 |
Sixth | $125,000 |
Seventh | $125,000 |
Eighth | $125,000 |
Ninth | $125,000 |
Tenth | $125,000 |
No. | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Weight | Barrier |
1 | Hartnell | James Cummings | Damian Lane | 57.5kg | 12 |
2 | Almandin | Robert Hickmott | Frankie Dettori | 56.5kg | 14 |
3 | Humidor | Darren Weir | Blake Shinn | 56kg | 13 |
4 | Tiberian | Alain Couetil | OlivierPeslier | 55.5kg | 23 |
5 | Marmelo | Hughie Morrison | Hugh Bowman | 55kg | 16 |
6 | Red Cardinal | Andreas Wohler | Kerrin McEvoy | 55kg | 24 |
7 | Johannes Vermeer | Aidan O’Brien | Ben Melham | 54.5kg | 3 |
8 | Bondi Beach | Robert Hickmott | Michael Walker | 54kg | 1 |
9 | Max Dynamite | William Mullins | Zac Purton | 54kg | 2 |
10 | Ventura Storm | David & B Hayes & T Dabernig | Glen Boss | 54kg | 6 |
11 | Who Shot Thebarman | Chris Waller | Tommy Berry | 54kg | 20 |
12 | Wicklow Brave | William Mullins | Stephen Baster | 54kg | 8 |
13 | Big Duke | Darren Weir | Brenton Avdulla | 53.5kg | 5 |
14 | US Army Ranger | Joseph O’Brien | Jamie Spencer | 53.5kg | 22 |
15 | Boom Time | David & B Hayes & T Dabernig | Cory Parish | 53kg | 9 |
16 | Gallante | Robert Hickmott | Michael Dee | 53kg | 18 |
17 | Libran | Chris Waller | Dwayne Dunn | 53kg | 7 |
18 | Nakeeta | Iain Jardine | Glyn Schofield | 53kg | 19 |
19 | Single Gaze | Nick Olive | Kathy O’Hara | 53kg | 11 |
20 | Wall of Fire | Hugo Palmer | Craig Williams | 53kg | 15 |
21 | Thomas Hobson | William Mullins | Joao Moreira | 52kg | 21 |
22 | Rekindling | Joseph O’Brien | Corey Brown | 51.5kg | 4 |
23 | Amelie’s Star | Darren Weir | Dean Yendall | 51kg | 10 |
24 | Cismontane | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Beau Mertens | 50kg | 17 |
The defending champion is back to try and defend the crowd at Australia’s richest race. Almandin took out the Melbourne Cup in 2016 ahead of Heartbreak City, Hartnell and Qewy. Hartnell is also in the field for 2017, while Qewy (who pulled out last week) and Heartbreak City aren’t in the race.
All the betting odds for the Cup.
The Roar‘s experts are almost unanimous in declaring Marmelo will win the race in 2017. Four out of five have tipped the favourite to win, while Tristan Rayner has tipped Almandin with Marmelo to finish second. Wall of Fire and Humidor are among the other horses expected to be at the head of affairs.