First Tuesday in November !

The Melbourne cup is an Australian institution, not matched by any other horse race anywhere in the world.   America has it's Kentucky Derby and Britain has Ascot, but while these create wide interest in the community - neither nation comes to a full stop for the few minutes the race is run.

Visitors to this country who experience the Melbourne cup phenomenon are amazed.   No matter whether you are in a major city of a small country town, the citizens seem to find a pub, club or perhaps a shop selling television sets to satisfy their urge to watch this one horse race.

People who rarely even buy a lottery ticket seem to have a wager on the Melbourne cup and there is barely an office or a factory that is not running a Melbourne cup sweep.   The amount of money wagered on that one race is amazing, and it must be one of the hardest races in the world to successfully pick the winner.

The question nobody can successfully answer - is why this horse race came to be so revered that it completely shades every other event in this country ?     Winning that gold trophy is seen as the pinnacle of success for every horse breeder, trainer , owner and jockey in an industry that employs thousands of people.  There are dozens of prestige races that draw big crowds and are eagerly contested by the industry - but there is only the one Melbourne cup that stops the nation !

Each year the international prestige of this race grows.   It is an integral part of the world horse racing scene and the world's best horses make the long journey to Australia to compete.  It is a standing joke overseas that expatriate Australians " disappear " for an hour on the first Tuesday in November.    They find somewhere to watch this iconic horse race.  That is simply a part of the Australian identity.

 So -  we are on the way towards this years race.   The Caufield cup has been run and the Cox plate will quickly follow..    The days will count down to that first Tuesday in November and then the crowds will congregate across the nation to observe a ritual that is uniquely Australian.

Even those who migrate here from other lands find that it commands an irresistible allure that quickly binds them to their new countrty !