betHQ
February 27, 2019
Presenting your favourite race, in numbers:
6200000 – the Melbourne Cup prize fund, in AU$
122736 – the biggest crowd ever to attend the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Park, witnessing Makybe Diva’s first Melbourne Cup win
50205 – the cost of entering a horse into the final field of the Melbourne Cup, in AU$
46570 – the number of bottles of champagne consumed at the Melbourne Cup annually
3200 – the Melbourne Cup race distance, in meters
2061 – the year the Melbourne Cup will turn 200
1941 – the last year in which a 3-year-old won the Melbourne Cup
196 – the number of seconds it took Kingston Rule to break the Melbourne Cup winning time record in 1990
80 – the percentage of the Australian adult population that bet on the Melbourne Cup
66 – the biggest weight in kgs carried to victory in the Melbourne Cup, by Carbine in 1890
50 – the minimum handicap carried by entries in the race
40 – the number of New Zealand bred horses to have won the Melbourne Cup (as of 2016)
39 – the largest field to contest the Melbourne Cup, in 1980
24 – the current field size limit
18 – the approximate distance in meters by which the Melbourne Cup was reduced when Australia adopted the metric system in 1972, also the number of the only barrier never to have produced a Melbourne Cup winner
14 – the number of days foreign horses have to spend in quarantine before competing in the cup
12 – the age of Peter St Albans, the youngest jockey to win the Melbourne Cup
8 – the biggest winning margin in Melbourne Cup history, and the age of the oldest Cup winning horses
7 – the smallest field to contest the Melbourne Cup, in 1863
3 – the number of black coated horses to have won the Melbourne Cup.
