Melbourne Cup

Melbourne Cup Tips

Punters Paradise has Australia's largest online tipping market place. There are literally hundreds of tipsters to choose from and it's your ultimate place to find Australia's best Melbourne Cup Tips.

Check out our top selling tipsters on the main ladder board page, to see who the rest of the racing public follow. We highly recommend following Spartacus, our number one top selling tipster. You'll see from his past performance that if you buy his tips, you'll be sure to back a big priced winner or two this Melbourne Cup! 

Melbourne Cup Form Guide

Looking for winners? Our Melbourne Cup form guide has all the tools you'll need to help you select the winner and place-getters. The Melbourne Cup form guide is free and will be available on the Friday before the Cup, giving you plenty of time to study the form and make your picks.

The form guide includes the previous 10 starts for every horse, track maps, speed maps, race cards, performance details, punters comments and much more. If you want to get started right away, visit Melbourne Cup Horse Form, for a preview and analysis of early contenders!

Melbourne Cup Odds

Not only do we offer the Melbourne Cup's best bets but we also have a page dedicated to displaying the very latest Melbourne Cup odds from Australia's leading bookmakers and betting exchanges, which means you can get BETTER odds for BIGGER wins!

The odds update every minute allowing you to see all the market moves and best backed runners from Australia's most respected bookmakers, betting exchanges and TAB‘s. Check out the latest favourites and search the field for this years winner.

Melbourne Cup News

Our Melbourne Cup news is provided by Australia's leading journalists. We've put together a news page dedicated to the Melbourne Cup so you can easily keep up to date with everything there is to know.

The most recent news is at the top of the page, and if you're logged in you can easily comment on, or discuss any of the articles posted here at Punters Paradise.

Melbourne Cup Horses

See all the Melbourne Cup horses in the final field of 24 complete with forms for every galloper, jockey and training participating. The Melbourne Cup Horses section is the most detailed guide for all the information you need to see, study and learn about each of the finalists. 

The declarations and nominations will be updated as the final Melbourne Cup field is narrowed down. The scheduled announcements for Melbourne Cup runners will occur on the following days so be sure to check back to see the how the field unfolds:


Melbourne Cup Declarations and Nominations

• First Declaration announced: September 1st, 2011
• Second Declaration announced: September 8th, 2011
• Third Declaration announced: October 4th, 2011
• Final Declaration announced: October 24th, 2011
• Final Field and Barrier Draw announced: October 29th, 2011
• Melbourne Cup: November 1st, 2011 at 3.00 pm AEST
  
  

Melbourne Cup Results

See all the Melbourne Cup results since the race was first run and won way back in 1861 by Archer. The results include the Melbourne Cup winners, Year, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Colour of Horse, Sex, Age, Number of Starters, TAB Numbers, Barriers and Weight carried.

We'll update the table to include the results and odds within an half an hour of the running of the Melbourne Cup.

Melbourne Cup History

The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861 at Flemington race course and was won by Archer. It has run every year since. Through wars and depression, and the good times too, the Melbourne Cup racing carnival has been one of the stayers of Australian cultural experience.

The Melbourne Cup remains the richest handicap race in the world and attracts a star studded line up of International stayers. If you would like to learn more about Australia's iconic race simply check out our Melbourne Cup history page to learn everything there is to know about the Melbourne Cup.

Melbourne Cup Discussions

There is no shortage of opinions at Punters Paradise and one of the hottest topics for discussion throughout the year is always the Melbourne Cup. Last year the Melbourne Cup discussions had over 600 comments and it always makes for some interesting reading and heated debates.

The discussions page will include any discussions related to the Melbourne Cup with the most recent comments at the top, similar to the news. If you'd like to contribute to the discussions, please log in.

Melbourne Cup Fashion

Melbourne Cup fashion has always been an important part of the day and this is largely due to the popular fashions on the field competitions, which offer some great prizes for those prepared to go all out and compete with the other fashionistas.

Check out our Melbourne Cup fashion page to see photos of race wear fashions from past contestants and celebrities that have been spotted at previous Melbourne Cup events.

Melbourne Cup History and Culture

This year sees the 151st running of the Melbourne Cup, a horse race that has a stronger foothold in popular Australian culture than any other sporting occasion. But the race's place in the fabric of Australia is rapidly changing from a famous sporting contest to a truly international marketing opportunity and entertainment experience.

The Cup started life as a modestly prized handicap in front of a crowd of around 4,000 spectators with Archer the winner. Legend has Archer walking 500 miles from Nowra to Melbourne to contest the first Melbourne Cup, though reports at the time reveal he travelled by steamer from Sydney to Melbourne.

This year, thoroughbred bluebloods from around the world will be flown to Melbourne and housed in virtual luxury in their bid to win the "race that stops a nation".

The Melbourne Cup is now an international event and in recent years Irish trainer Dermott Weld has won two runnings, Japanese horses ran first and second in the 2006 Cup and French galloper Americain won in 2011.

This year there will be unprecedented interest from foreign stables as they try to win the world's richest handicap race. It's expected that the 2011 Melbourne Cup will field one of the largest contigent of 'raiders' (foreign trained horses) in the event's history.

The handicap conditions of the Melbourne Cup mean horses are allotted a weight to carry on the basis of their disclosed racetrack form. In theory that means the best horses will always carry the most weight, as opposed to weight-for-age racing where horses are allocated a weight that is based on their sex and age, and not their career history.

Handicap conditions mean astute trainers will try and get their horse into the Melbourne Cup with as little weight as possible. However they often tread a tricky path as a horse placed too low in the ratings may be denied a start if higher weighted horses take all the places in the field.

The history of the Melbourne Cup is littered with tales of astute trainers landing major betting plunges as they sneak their charges into the race with luxurious featherweights.

However the arrival of high quality international horses means that the only way of ensuring a start in the Melbourne Cup these days is to make sure a horse's form is good enough to earn a weight that guarantees a place in the final field.

The other method of gaining entry is to win a Melbourne Cup Exemption race. These are races that provide for an automatic ballot, should the horse's connections choose to excercise it. There are a total of seven Melbourne Cup exemption races and one Challenge series. The races that exempt the horse from the normal ballot procedure include:

The Irish St Leger (IRE)
The Spring Tenno Sho (JPN)
The Lexus Stakes at Flemington
The AAMI Victoria Derby
The Mackinnon Stakes
The Cox Plate
The Caulfield Cup
And the winner of the Australian Stayers Challenge

While last year's 150th running was a historic event in its own right, the Melbourne Cup has become synonymous with three key figures. They are Phar Lap, Makybe Diva and Bart Cummings.

Phar Lap’s Cup journey in 1930-31 was so compelling that he became an instant legend, later resulting in a classic Australian movie portraying the achievements of this great Melbourne Cup icon.

Makybe Diva and her three back to back wins (2003, 2004, 2005), the first galloper to ever accomplish this remarkable feat. Best summed up by Lee Freedman On Melbourne Cup Day in 2005 when he was quoted as saying- "Go and find the youngest child on the course today, because they are the only person here with a chance of witnessing a horse win three consecutive Melbourne Cups in their lifetime".

Bart Cummings and his amazing twelve Melbourne Cup trophies. Another achievement that’s doubtful to ever be broken, at least not in our lifetimes. The name Bart Cummings and Melbourne Cup trainers will be tied together for generations to come, and the best part is, he‘s not finished. For more details about Bart Cummings and other famous horsemen visit our Melbourne Cup trainers page.

Thanks to Emirates, the major sponsor of the Melbourne Cup, the VRC will now offer prizemoney of $6 million plus $175,000 in trophies for connections, ensuring it remains the richest handicap race in the world, and continues to attract a star studded line up of International stayers.

- 1st $3,600,000 and trophies of $150,000 to owner $10,000 to trainer $10,000 to jockey $5,000 to strapper.
- 2nd $900,000.
- 3rd $450,000.
- 4th $250,000.
- 5th $175,000.
- 6th $125,000.
- 7th $125,000.
- 8th $125,000.
- 9th $125,000.
-10th $125,000.

Melbourne Cup Celebration: Food, Fun and Holiday

The Melbourne Cup is much more than Australia's most watched and revered sporting event, it's also become the destination for extravagant celebrations and festivities. People celebrate the Melbourne Cup with much joy and in a variety of different ways.

Whether at the Flemington racetrack, at the office with colleagues, or a local pub with their mates, people go all out to make the Melbourne Cup a memorable day.

Celebrate in style with delectable canapés, beer and bubbles. Don't miss the opportunity to sip on exclusive cocktails, like the mango and passion fruit champagne. Specially created for the occasion by very talented bar tenders in Australia.

Treat yourself to oysters Kilpatrick, chicken wings with blue cheese sauce or lamb and mint meat pies.

The 'Fashions on the Field' competition dates back to the 60’s when a generous prize pool of goods and cash was used to entice.

Photos of celebrities, models and others wearing the latest Melbourne Cup fashion are very popular due to their trendy styles and flamboyent colors.

The contest still follows to date, with venues giving away holiday trips, drinking tabs, fashion wardrobes and cash. Giddy up and dress to impress as prizes will certainly be included for the fashion savvy. Including prizes and cash awards for the best dressed, most elegant head ware and innovate new styles.

Melbourne Cup Social Media

In 2010 the tradition rich Melbourne Cup entered Social Media era. An era marked by the astonishing growth of Social Media platforms that include Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

It was through these, and other social networking applications, that racing fans were able to connect on global and regional levels and share real time Melbourne Cup updates.

In 2010 it was estimated that over 100,000 Social Media mentions (Twitter, Facebook and various shared micro Blogs) related specifically to the Melbourne Cup were found echoing through October 27th to November 2nd. With this social networking buzz peaking on the day of the event.

The amount of social networking noise surrounding the 2011 Melbourne Cup should far exceed 2010 based on the roll out of new applications and the increased use of existing interactive media sites. With a great respect for the past, combined with an eye toward the future, Punters Paradise has evolved into a leader in the use of social networking for racing fans.

Punters Paradise has earned the title 'the tipping and social revolution for sport!' by offering highly interactive racing forums, the world's only market place where you can buy or sell horse racing tips online, odds comparison tools that are updated in real time and much more.