So you want to get involved in the Melbourne Cup but you don’t know anything about it. I’m not sure how that’s possible if you live in Australia, but sure, let’s go with it.
Well, while you’re enjoying The Race That Stops The Nation and maybe even a public holiday depending on where you live, you may be interested in having a flutter on it.
If you’re going to bet, do so responsibly; and here’s how you’d do it.
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MELBOURNE CUP FORM GUIDE: Trevor Marshallsea’s verdict on every runner and predicted first four
TWO-TIME WINNER’S GUIDE: Legendary jockey’s verdict and the last start winner he’s tipping
BARRIER DRAW: Race blown open after favourite shocker
FINAL FIELD: Who made the cut for 2024?
EXPERT TIPS: Who those in the know are backing
WHAT IS THE MELBOURNE CUP?
It’s a horse race, that includes 24 horses (although sometimes fewer if they are withdrawn or ‘scratched’ – that’s not usually literal) trying to be the fastest around a 3200-metre trip of Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne’s inner northwest.
If they are the fastest, they earn $4.4 million for their owner, trainer and jockey. The horse does not get the money as horses have no need to barter for goods and services.
Each horse has odds based on how likely the betting public and bookmakers believe they are to win. The horse viewed as most likely to win has the smallest odds; ie if you bet a dollar, you might only get a few back, rather than a couple of hundred.
It happens at 3pm on the first Tuesday in November – this year, that’s November 5. It’s on the telly (Channel 9). And the internet.
HOW DO I BET?
First, you need to pick your horse.
There are a couple of tried-and-true methods. One is to have a mate who follows horse racing; then you can blame them when their pick loses.
Another is to look at the colours and names and pick your favourites. Maybe your horse’s jockey will look like he’s playing for your footy team, or you’re a fan of their weird and wacky names.
Or you could try and analyse the form guide – you know, that confusing bit with all of the tiny writing in the middle of the paper? No, not the real estate listings. Or the classifieds. The other part.
There’ll be plenty of information in there about how the horses have gone recently. It might not make sense to you though, so you might just want to look at the column with the odds and find the smallest number.
Once you’ve picked your horse, you need to place your bet.
They have the internet on computers now, and even telephones, so you can sign up to a betting website and put some money on that way from the safety of your living room.
You can also take the traditional morning trip to the local betting house.
Once you get there – and you’ll want to get there early – you can ask one of the operators there to help you out or fill out one of the cards. They’ll have Melbourne Cup-specific ones which make it nice and simple.
You can also place bets in person at the track.
Lake Forest wins Golden Eagle late! | 00:46
WHAT KINDS OF BETS ARE THERE?
The simplest bet is a win bet. In those, you only make money if your horse comes first.
You can also bet on a horse to ‘place’ – that means if they finish in the top three, you win, but at less lucrative odds than with the win bet.
Then you can get exotic. There are quinellas (first two in any order), exactas (first two in order), trifectas (first three in any order) and first fours (first … you can probably guess this one).
For example in 2019, the dividends for those bet types were as follows: The quinella paid $82.40, the exacta paid $175, the trifecta paid $2,953.40 and the first four paid $79,381.40.
Of course, those numbers also reflect how difficult it is to tip them, so don’t expect to just randomly win $80k.
SO … GOT A TIP FOR WHO’LL WIN?
You can see our expert’s assessment of the big race here!
Click here for a runner-by-runner preview from Melbourne Cup winning jockey Jim Cassidy!
You can see the horses involved below, with the number they’ll be wearing during the race (No.4 has won the most times with 12, this year that’s Warp Speed), their barrier (barrier five, this year occupied by Trust In You, has won eight times), their jockey and the weight they’ll be carrying (heavier = slower, that’s just physics).
The latter is important because it’s a handicap race; the horses seen to be in the best form are given extra weight to punish them.
The average weight of a winner across the last decade is between 54 and 55kg, so you probably want a horse roughly a third of the way down the list?
2024 MELBOURNE CUP FINAL FIELD
Ballot Order – Horse (barrier) – Trainer – Jockey – Weight
1 – VAUBAN (11) – Willie Mullins – William Buick – 55.5kg
2 – BUCKAROO (21) – Chris Waller – Joao Moreira – 54.5kg
3 – CIRCLE OF FIRE (24) – Ciaron Maher – Mark Zahra – 54.5kg
4 – WARP SPEED (3) – Noboru Takagi – Akira Sugawara – 54kg
5 – KOVALICA (17) – Chris Waller – Damian Lane – 53.5kg
6 – SHARP ‘N’ SMART (15) – Graeme & Deborah Rogerson – Michael Dee – 53.5kg
7 – JUST FINE (13) – Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott – Jye McNeill – 53kg
8 – LAND LEGEND (18) – Chris Waller – Zac Purton – 53kg
9 – ABSURDE (7) – Willie Mullins – Kerrin McEvoy – 52.5kg
10 – ATHABASCAN (2) – John O’Shea & Tom Charlton – Zac Lloyd – 52kg
11 – KNIGHT’S CHOICE (6) – John Symons & Sheila Laxon – Robbie Dolan – 51.5kg
12 – OKITA SOUSHI (10) – Ciaron Maher – Jamie Kah – 51kg
13 – ONESMOOTHOPERATOR (12) – Brian Ellison – Craig Williams – 51kg
14 – ZARDOZI (4) – James Cummings – Andrea Atzeni – 51kg
15 – SEA KING (1) – Harry Eustace – Hollie Doyle – 50.5kg
16 – VALIANT KING (22) – Chris Waller – Craig Newitt – 50.5kg
17 – FANCY MAN (19) – Annabel Neasham & Rob Archibald – Ron Stewart – 50kg
18 – INTERPRETATION (14) – Ciaron Maher – Teo Nugent – 50kg
19 – MANZOICE (8) – Chris Waller – Declan Bates – 50kg
20 – MOSTLY CLOUDY (16) – Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young – Karis Teetan – 50kg
21 – POSITIVITY (20) – Andrew Forsman – Winona Costin – 50kg
22 – SAINT GEORGE (9) – Ciaron Maher – Tyler Schiller – 50kg
23 – THE MAP (23) – Dan Clarken & Oopy MacGillivray – Rachel King – 50kg
24 – TRUST IN YOU (5) – Bruce Wallce & Grant Cooksley – Mark Du Plessis – 50kg
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