All the action from the 2024 Caulfield Cup
More than 25,000 people packed out Saturday’s Caulfield Cup — one of Melbourne’s most prestigious events on the racing calendar. See all the pictures below.
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Younger crowds are returning to the races in droves with an increase in men and women aged under 35 credited with the biggest predicted Caulfield Cup attendance in years.
About 25,000 revellers are expected at the 147th running of the Caulfield Cup on Saturday, with general admission ticket sales up about 20 per cent compared to last year.
Organisers billing this year’s event as a “party day” have hired star Aussie DJ Tyson O’Brien in a further bid to appeal to the youth demographic and pump up the atmosphere.
Melbourne Racing Club executive Ashley Curnow expected more than 60 per cent of those trackside to be aged 35 and under, in a trend she said hadn’t been seen at “the Heath” for years.
“About 15-20 years ago, Caulfield Cup certainly used to be that younger crowd,” she said.
“That then wavered over time but this is certainly the resurgence of it now and we’ve got a lot of initiatives targeting that younger group.
“So it is certainly not an accident that the audience falls that way ... we are trying to drive younger people to the track.”
O’Brien, who has toured with the likes of superstar DJ Calvin Harris and played club residencies in Ibiza and Las Vegas, will spin tunes on the main circular stage in the general admission area after the main race.
“We really want to take that party atmosphere to a whole other level, and we think Tyson will bring that flavour to the trackas well,” Ms Curnow said.
Provided the weather gods do their part, it will be the biggest Caulfield Cup crowd since before Covid.
Ms Curnow said 66 per cent of GA fans at last week’s Caulfield Guineas were aged under 35, up from 51 per cent last year, with a “much younger crowd than previous years” trackside.
That would continue on Saturday, with the event positioned as “a bit of a party day”.
“That whole strategy we’re doing is about trying to attract more younger, entertainment seeker customers back to the races – we are certainly getting some traction and the proof is in the pudding with the numbers,” she said.
“It will be similar for the Caulfield Cup, we would be looking for that trend to continue if not increase so there will beat least 60 per cent of that audience under 35 for sure.”
Ms Curnow said the “significant” increase in general admission sales was partially driven by cheaper ticket sales, revealed by the Herald Sun earlier this year.
“People are kind of seeing it as an affordable spring racing day out and we’re definitely seeing that in the ticket sales coming through,” she said.
“We’re probably about 20 per cent up year on year, more than 1000 GA tickets up, so we’re talking quite strong and we’ve been that way pretty much since we went on sale in August.”
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