The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s major annual thoroughbred horse race, held at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It is one of the world’s richest horse races. Nearly every person in Australia stops to watch or listen to this event, it is billed as ‘The race that stops a nation’.

The Melbourne Cup is held by the Victoria Racing Club on the first Tuesday each November, at 3 p.m. The race is for three-year-olds and over, and covers a distance of 3200 meters. The start of the race is in the straight, 888 meters from the finish post. The runners race past the post and complete another lap (2312 m) after that.

The next Melbourne Cup is to be held on Nov 6, 2018.