The Melbourne Cup is raced at 3pm (local time) on the first Tuesday in November and has been in existence since 1861 – to put that into perspective that is the same year that the American Civil War started.
That first race was won by a horse called Archer, who legend has it walked 500 miles from its stable in New South Wales to race. His prize was not a cup at all, instead the winning owner was presented with a hand – beaten gold watch. Archer went on to win the race again the following year. Archer in fact is only one of five horses to have won the Cup more than once.

The Melbourne Cup is raced over a distance of 2 miles and is open to horses aged three years and over. It is run at the Flemington race track in Melbourne, which has a crowd capacity of over 120,000 and they sell every ticket every year without fail. The race track is shaped similarly to a pear and has a back straight of six furlongs known as the ’straight six’. The final straight to the post is a demanding 450 metres long which has been decisive in many races over its history. The course also hosts the Australian VRC Derby, the VRC Oaks, the Australia Cup and the Lightening Stakes.

Makybe Diva holds the record for the most race wins: this mare won the race in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and was the highest Stakes earner in the history of Australian horse racing. She is only one of 11 mares and 3 fillies ever to have won the race; such has been the dominance of the colts and geldings.

Despite Makybe Diva’s success, the Melbourne Cup’s most famous winner was the great Phar Lap, who dominated horse racing in Australia from 1929 to 1932 winning the Melbourne Cup in 1930 and a dozen other top rated races. A very impressive bronze statue has been built and is now one of the many great features at the Flemington race track.

The 2008 winner of the Melbourne Gold Cup was a horse named Viewed trained by the man known as the “Cups King”, Bart Cummings. Cummings has trained a formidable 12 winners of the Melbourne Cup down the years, with his earliest victory dating back to 1965 when Light Fingers. During his illustrious career Cummings has only trained one horse to two Melbourne Cup victories and that was Think Big in 1974 and 1975. It remains to be see if Viewed will take his chance for a second year running, but if he does you can be sure that Bart Cummings will stand a great chance of adding a 13th Melbourne Cup victory to his roll of honour.

In the early 19th century nine prominent men from New York -
August Belmont, H. DeCourcy Forbes, Samuel S.Howland, James O.
Green, Frederick Gebhard, A.J. Cassatt, Foxhall P. Keene, John
G. Follansbee and Frederick H. Prince founded the National
Association for Steeplechase. When it was first founded, its
mission was to make the sport popular in the US and help it grow
across the Atlantic. For membership details and other small
tidbits about the Association, you can visit their website at
http://www.nsfdn.org/membership.html.

Steeplechase races are held at 12 states across the country and
the cumulative purses for these events are $5 million annually.
The horse races are a place to see and be seen at. It’s seen
across the country by millions of fans and admirers and is a
major sponsored event where corporate sponsors vie with each
other for sponsorship of the events. It attracts the best talent
for horses, horse owners, and riders and also raises millions of
dollars in charities. Thus it also attracts the most powerful
and the influential men and women. If you have seen Pretty
Woman, you pretty much have got the idea.

Some of the oldest and the most prestigious steeplechase horse
racing events are Montpelier Hunt Races, which was started on
the estates of Former President James Madison since 1929. For
more information you can visit their site
http://www.montpelier.org/races.htm. Others are The American
Grand National that began in 1899 and the The National Hunt Cup
in Radnor, Pa., which was started in 1909. For more information
on steeplechase racing across the country, you can visit
http://www.steeplestakes.com/links.html, which lists all the
races, their schedules and the prize monies.

In Virginia, you can visit the Virginia Steeplechase
association at http://www.vasteeplechase.com/. The big races in
Virginia are Virginia Gold Cup, FoxField races at
Charlottesville, Virginia, Fairfax Hunt races at Great Falls,
Middleburg Spring races at Middleburg, Montpelier Hunt Races at
Montpelier Station, Morven park Steeplechase races at Leesburg,
Mountaineer chest track in Chester etc.

You can also visit these websites for further information on
racing in Virginia.http://www.ctownraces.com/
http://www.colonialdowns.com/ http://www.fairfaxhuntraces.org/
http://www.montpelier.org/ http://www.foxfieldraces.com/
http://www.vagoldcup.com/ http://www.middleburgspringraces.com/

It is Australia’s most famous Tuesday, the “race that stops a nation”. Mark Twain called it Australia’s true folk festival and said that the magnificence of its appeal on an entire country astonished him. It is also one of the world’s most challenging horse races, and certainly the richest in prize money.

The Melbourne Cup. Every year, millions of people across Australia stop what they are doing at 3pm on the first Tuesday of November to watch or listen to the race. Parliament suspends its proceedings, hundreds of thousands flock to the racing grounds in their best and most fashionable outfits, and festive celebrations take place.

Australia is the only country in the world which has declared an annual state public holiday for a horse race. As one of the most prestigious two-mile horse races in the world, the annual Melbourne Cup is a sporting and fashion affair that has become a national icon and a major Victorian tourist attraction.

The first Melbourne Cup race was held in 1861, where seventeen horses contested for a gold watch and 170pounds in cash. The winner was a horse from New South Wales named Archer, who was acquired and trained by Etienne L. de Mestre. Archer also won the second Cup race, and de Mestre would later train a further three Cup winners.  Sixteen years later, Australia officially made the first Tuesday in November a public holiday – Melbourne Cup Day.

The Melbourne Cup race culture has traditionally been one of high fashion, with racegoers attending in their best outfits. From celebrities to the ordinary girl next door, attendees ensure they are dressed to stun. Women are usually decked out in fashionable hats or fascinators, and designer labels are prevalent. “Fashions on the Field” is a major highlight of the entire event, and prizes are given to the best-dressed male and female.

d’Italia Designer Fabric has been active in the Melbourne Cup fashion arena for the past several years. The store’s imported fabric has been highly sought-after by Melbourne Cup racegoers, for its high quality and exclusivity. The store also offers referral services to award-winning tailors and seamstresses.