Melbourne Cup Tips

Interesting facts about the Melbourne Cup:

The Melbourne Cup was first run in 1861. Archer easily won that race over two miles in a time of 3:52.00s. In 1968 Rain Lover set  the two miles race record time of only 3:19.10s.

In 1972 the race was converted to the metric distance of 3200 metres which is  18.69 metres or 61.30 feet short of  two miles. There is no doubt that some of the metric winners would not have won had the race remained two miles or, as many people wanted at the time, been changed to 3218.7 metres!

The metric record of  3:16.30s was set by Kingston Rule in 1990. Brew, ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, won in the time of 3:18.68s. last year.

In 1985 the race reached $1 million dollars in prize money for the first time. What A Nuisance, ridden by Pat Hyland, won the $650,000 first prize.

Jim Cummings trained one Cup winner, Comic Court in 1950. In 1965 his son Bart trained  his first Melbourne Cup winner, the four year old mare Light Fingers. Bart Cummings holds the trainers' record having trained an incredible 11 winners. He last won the race in 1999 with Rogan Josh. However last year and this year Bart Cummings has missed out on getting a runner into the Cup field.

No woman trainer has officially won the Melbourne Cup. However Catalogue who won the 1938 Cup was trained by Mrs. A. McDonald. Women then could not be registered as trainers. It was her husband who was the registered trainer.  
 
The two most successful Melbourne Cup jockeys are Bobbie Lewis and Harry White with four wins each.

Bobby Lewis won on The Victory 1902, Patrobas 1915, Artilleryman 1919 and Trivalve 1927. He finished second four times and third on Phar Lap in 1929. Had the race been run then under Quality Handicap conditions, like it is now,  which means a compressed weight scale, there is no doubt Phar Lap would have won very easily.

Harry White won on the Bart Cummings' trained Think Big in 1974 and 1975. Think Big did not win a race in between those two Melbourne Cup wins. Harry White also won on Arwon in 1978 and another  Bart Cummings' trained horse Hyperno in 1979. So Harry White also holds a unique record of two Melbourne Cup doubles! 

Horses to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double are Poseidon 1906, The Trump 1937, Rivette 1939, Rising Fast 1954, Even Stevens 1962, Galilee 1966, Gurner's Lane 1982, Let's Elope 1991, Doriemus 1995 and Might And Power 1997.

Horses to have won two Melbourne Cups are Archer 1861-1862, Peter Pan 1932 and 1934, Rain Lover 1968-1969 and Think Big 1974-1975.
The longest priced winners are The Pearl 100/1 (1871), Wotan 100/1 (1936), Old Rowley 100/1 (1940) and Rimfire 80/1 (1948). 
   
33 favourites have won the Melbourne Cup. The shortest priced winners were Archer 2/1 (1862), Revenue 7/4 (1908) and Phar Lap 8/11 odds on (1930). 65 Cup favourites have finished in the first three placings.

The heaviest weight carried to victory was by Carbine in 1890 with 10 stone 5lbs (65.5kg).

Five year olds have won the race 41 times. Four year olds (40), six year olds (25),  three year olds (23), seven year olds (9) and eight year olds (2).The last three year old to win the race was Skipton in 1941.

Between the time weights are released for the Melbourne Cup and the running of the race most of the Cup hopefuls are not in the race. After the weights have been released for the Melbourne Cup, the last original top weight to win the Cup was Comic Court with nine stone five pounds (59.5kg.) in 1950.

Over the last 11 years nine Melbourne Cup winners finished either first or second at their previous start!

Historically the best guides to the Melbourne Cup have been the Caulfield Cup and the Mackinnon Stakes.

Jockeys riding in the Cup who have won the Melbourne Cup in the last 10 years: 

2000 Kerrin McEvoy - Brew
1998 Chris Munce - Jezabeel
1996 Darren Beadman - Saintly
1995 Damien Oliver - Doriemus
1990 Darren Beadman - Kingston Rule 

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Did we ever tip some huge winners on Derby Day!!
Here is an e mail we received from one of our winning Hi Flyer members.

From: Keith Hentschke To: Neil
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2001 12:23 PM
Subject: Derby Day Jackpots

"Hi Neil,
Just a quick note to say thanks for the Derby day Jackpot Selections as many long priced winners were contained within your selections. My .....selection method used for small bets produced 6 winners from 21 bets across the country for the day. The winners were All Courage $25, Quays $19, Slick Operator $8, La Bella Dama $60, Varicool $11 and Mossiton $7.

A return of 130 units on an outlay of 21 units was simply an awesome result ! Small bets on these allowed me to end the day well in front for what was a difficult day for the punter - especially in Melbourne.
Thanks again.
Cheers, Keith"

Keith has been a High Flyer member since joining us in 1998.
We must be doing something right!!

Warning
Short Priced Tote Favourites
These are losing bets.
Look at the table below and see the percentages lost backing short priced tote favourites compared with bookmaker betting ring prices.

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