The Melbourne Cup is Australia's largest annual thoroughbred horse race. It is one of the world's top races, and completely brings Australia to a standstill. All three-year-olds and over are eligible to compete in the race, and it covers a distance of 3,200 meters. It is regarded as the most prestigious 2-mile handicap in the world, and is held on the first Tuesday in November by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

The race was originally held over two miles, but after Australia's adoption of the metric system in the 1970s; the current race distance is 3,200 meters, knocking off the extra 18 which equaled the 2-mile mark. The record is presently held by Kingston Rule, who ran the race in 3:16.3.

The inaugural race was held in 1861 and was comprised of 17 horses competing for 170 in cash and a gold watch. It is rumored that the winner of the race, Archer, walked over 800km to participate in the race from Nowra, New South Wales. A crowd of over 4,000 watched the opening race, and the numbers would have been larger had it not been for the untimely death of explorers Burke and Wills.

Archer would go on to win the race the following year, but was unable to compete for his third consecutive title due to owner Etienne de Mestre's late arriving nomination form. This caused many owners to boycott the race, and left the Melbourne Cup to be run with only 7 horses, the smallest number in the Cup's history.

On November 7, 1876, the running of the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday commenced with the three-year-old filly named Briseis easily winning the Cup and setting an astounding record that is likely to never be equaled. In the span of 6 days, Briseis won the VRC Derby, the Melbourne Cup, and the VRC Oaks, and amazingly, she was ridden by a 13-year-old jockey named Peter St Albans. The following year, the first Tuesday in November was officially recognized as a full public holiday.

In 1930, the Melbourne Cup played host to the most famous racehorse in New Zealand history, Phar Lap. This monstrous racehorse was a dark chestnut color and made even the larger jockeys disappear on his back. He won the Melbourne Cup in convincing fashion that year, but would follow up with an 8th place finish in 1931. Nevertheless, Phar lap captured the attention of OZ and Kiwi nation as he triumphantly galloped on every racetrack in the country.

The Melbourne Cup has undergone several alterations over the past decade or so, with the most visible being the arrival of multiple foreign-trained horses to contest the race in the last decade. Most of the horses from outside Australia have failed to cope with the harsh conditions of the Melbourne track. In 2004, Makybe Diva became the first mare to win 2 cups, and in 2005, the Diva became the only horse in history to win the race an unprecedented three times, the third taking place in front of an overwhelming crowd of over 106,000. The prize money to date is over AUD$5.5-million.