Melbourne Cup(墨爾本賽馬節)是墨爾本一年一度的盛事，是一個極富意義及熱鬧的慶祝活動，在賽馬比賽當天，澳洲維多利亞州還會放假一天唷!!
Melbourn Cup活動小簡介
時間: 2011/10/29 - 2011/11/05
票價: AU$45-74澳幣 請參考Melbourne Cup 2011票價表
地點: Flemington
交通方式: 有特別的火車可以直達，可以至墨爾本市區的Flinders Street火車站 (Platforms 8 & 9)搭車。
活動: 有各式各樣的表言內容，以及賽馬活動，表演內容可參考Melbourne Cup Events
Melbourne Cup的歷史介紹
In 1861, at the first running of the Melbourne Cup, the race club committee could hardly have envisaged the Cup lasting a century and a half and growing to become a significant part of our social and sporting culture.
In front of an estimated crowd of 4,000 people, Archer became the first winner of the Melbourne Cup and Victorians, and the wider Australian community, were already displaying their great passion for thoroughbred racing.
Today, the Melbourne Cup is the richest handicap race held in Australia, and the prize money and trophies make it among the richest horseraces in the world.
Flemington was fairly rough in the early days with little in the way of running rails or stands. But the Melbourne Cup quickly became popular as a carnival with picnic parties, sideshows, celebrations and people showing off their latest fashions. Socialites, politicians and Australia's rich and famous attended the Cup right from the earliest days, as they still do today.
While the Cup was first run on a Thursday, in 1875 it changed to a Tuesday and has normally been run on the first Tuesday in November each year. In three of the five years during World War II (1942, 1943 and 1944) it was held on a Saturday.
At the time of the first Cup, Victoria was experiencing the gold rush and many people had flocked to Melbourne, Bendigo and Ballarat in the hope of finding gold. A few gold-diggers were fortunate and became wealthy, and they enjoyed splurging at Flemington.
By 1880, 100,000 people would make the journey to Flemington to attend the Cup. As Melbourne’s population was only 290,000 at the time, this attendance was quite phenomenal, and many visitors came from the country and other Australian colonies, too. These were flourishing times as Melbourne continued to grow during and after the gold rush period.
"There was barely standing room on the lawn and many ladies were unable to find a seat for the whole day. The Paddock was overcrowded to excess and the Hill was simply a mass of human beings. It has reached a stage now that almost everyone in Melbourne goes to the Spring racing." - Australasian Newspaper (1871)
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