If there’s one phrase we will use to explain the Melbourne Cup, it’s divisive.
The “race that stops a nation” rolls round on the primary Tuesday of every November.
Incomes its personal public vacation in Victoria, the Melbourne Cup is one in all Australia’s most iconic sporting occasions, attracting celebrities and travellers from all over the world.
Round 90,000 individuals attended Melbourne’s Flemington racecourse to observe Knight’s Alternative beat the chances and produce dwelling the win.
However amidst the festive spirit there may be controversy. Over the previous decade, seven horses have died on Melbourne Cup day.
For Dr Wayne Peake, adjunct analysis fellow at Western Sydney College, attending the Melbourne Cup was at all times one in all his fondest reminiscences rising up.
“We considered all of it week,” he tells SBS Information.
“Once I was in school, all however a number of of the lecturers, primarily maths lecturers, would cease the category to take heed to the Cup.”
However Peake says public sentiment towards the Cup has shifted in recent times: “I do not suppose it occurs to the identical extent anymore,” he mentioned.
Whereas the race has been marred with controversy, loads of Australians nonetheless throw their assist across the Cup (and never simply for the general public vacation).
The Fashions on the Subject competitors is a giant draw card for the Melbourne Cup. Supply: Getty / Asanka Ratnayake
What does Melbourne Cup imply for fashionistas?
For fashionistas, the Melbourne Cup has at all times been one of many greatest occasions of the 12 months.
Attendees don their most closely fits, frocks, and most elaborate fascinators (ornamental headpiece) as a part of the festivities. The Trend on the Subject competitors is a giant attraction, with intensive tv protection and prizes awarded to the most effective dressed.
It’s as a lot of a drawcard because the race itself.
The style is one buzzy a part of the Cup that persons are drawn to.
Phil McManus is a professor of City and Environmental Geography on the College of Sydney and research the worldwide horseracing business. He says a big motive why persons are drawn to the races is due to the color and adrenaline of the day.
“Individuals are drawn to go to the races, partly as a result of the business is attracting younger individuals,” McManus instructed SBS Information.
“It is a social event. It is a get-together with your mates. It is about color, it is about Fashions on the Subject, it is about bringing pleasure to individuals … it’s one thing fashionable and glamorous.”
There may be additionally loads of consuming concerned — an estimated 45,000 bottles of champagne are consumed on the Melbourne Cup, in addition to tens of 1000’s of litres of beer.
Punters on the Melbourne Cup within the 12 months 2000. Supply: Getty / Andrew Hanos
What does Melbourne Cup imply for punters?
Whereas there are considerations about curiosity waning within the Melbourne Cup, punters are nonetheless popping out in full swing.
Usually one of many greatest days on bookmakers’ calendars, the Melbourne Cup continues to dominate bets. The Cup has generated greater than $1 billion in turnover over the past 5 years.
The overall prize cash for this 12 months’s race was $8.56 million, with the winner getting $4.4 million. The Cup is the richest handicap horse race on the earth.
“The betting on Melbourne Cup is as sturdy as ever,” Peake mentioned.
McManus mentioned a part of the “thrill” of the race is due to playing.
“There’s an adrenaline rush watching the horses and the racing … it’s definitely thrilling, so I can see why persons are drawn to it.”
Whereas attendance has dropped off for the reason that Cup’s peak in 2003 which noticed 122,736 attendees, in comparison with the estimated 90,000 this 12 months, Peake says different races just like the Cox Plate, The Everest, and The Golden Eagle are going “from energy to energy”.
However affiliate professor Charles Livingstone, Head of the Monash College Faculty of Public Well being and Preventive Medication’s Playing and Social Determinants Unit, is worried the Melbourne Cup is used as a “car to advertise playing”.
“The racing and sporting occasions are one factor, however the way in which they’ve been tied nearly inextricably to playing has turn out to be one thing that many individuals not solely discover offensive, but in addition very worrying.”
Whereas Livingstone says it could be possible sooner or later to separate sporting occasions from playing, he’s not too certain that the identical will lengthen to horse racing: “Horse racing mainly exists as a result of individuals gamble on it.”
It’s one a part of the rising resistance in direction of the Cup.
Pink Cadeaux was put down in 2015 after failing to recuperate from a critical leg damage, stopping it from ending the Melbourne Cup race. Supply: AAP / Tracey Nearmy
What does it imply to animal rights activists?
Resistance to the Melbourne Cup has grown lately, with individuals turning off the race altogether.
Rising activism on-line has led to thriving social media actions like #Nuptothecup. Beginning initially as a petition in 2010 to attract consideration to the mistreatment of horses, the marketing campaign has developed to name for the race to be shut down totally round considerations of animal cruelty, each on and off the sphere.
The Coalition for the Safety of Racehorses launched their DeathWatch report for 2024 this week and located that 151 racehorses in Australia died throughout 2023-2024.
1,400 horses have died on racetracks up to now decade.
Up to now decade, six horses have died within the Melbourne Cup race, with one other dying on Cup day. Final 12 months, two-year-old horse Rejuvenated died after falling on the observe throughout coaching on the eve of the race.
On Tuesday morning, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi referred to as for horse racing to be shut down and put within the “dustbin of historical past”.
“Increasingly persons are saying ‘Nup to the Cup’ yearly and fewer and fewer persons are watching it. The one motive this carnival of cruelty goes on is as a result of playing corporations make a windfall they usually bankroll the 2 main events into silence,” Faruqi mentioned in an announcement.
“The Melbourne Cup epitomises the farce of the horse racing business in a single day: a shameful cocktail of animal cruelty, playing hurt, company earnings and soiled donations.
Peake says the very public loss of life of horses hasn’t “helped” the Cup and predicts that “someplace down the road”, horse racing will cease altogether.
But when it does, he says will probably be the “loss of life of a thousand cuts”.
Peake says the implications of the closure of horse racing would have an effect on the nation in a number of methods, fearing a lack of employment for many individuals and the disappearance of thoroughbred horse breeds.
“Horse racing remains to be the second or third greatest business within the nation. So it has an infinite impression on the nation’s economic system.”
The Melbourne Cup has been thought of the “race that stops a nation” because it’s inception in 1861. Pictured: Horses racing within the 1967 Cup. Supply: Getty / Central Press
Why is the Melbourne Cup a public vacation in Victoria anyway?
Because the Cup’s inception in 1861, it has been touted because the race that stops a nation.
A lot so, individuals have traditionally taken break day work, clocked off their lunches early, or paused faculty classes to observe the race at 3pm.
As early as 1865, Cup Day was a half-holiday in Melbourne for public servants, with many companies closing at lunchtime for the occasion.
In 1876, the Melbourne Cup formally grew to become a public vacation in Victoria, though some native councils organise alternate public holidays for their very own respective cups, together with Bendigo Cup Day and Geelong Cup.
Whereas curiosity within the cup is waning, today, Victorians may use the day to take in the spring climate, simply as a lot as they’re to observe the race.
