Surprise figures reveal Aussies are embracing the Melbourne Cup again

We’ve been told that Australians have lost interest in racing – but figures have revealed the race that stops the nation isn’t going anywhere.

How spoilt we are that the first Tuesday in November brings both the US presidential election and the Melbourne Cup.

It’s practically Christmas. I haven’t been this excited since Collingwood missed out on making the AFL finals.

Melbourne Cup day is still one of the most special days on the Australian – even the global – sporting calendar.

And, by all accounts, it will remain that way because the animal activists have mercifully failed in their mission to demonise racing.

I’m sure that on Tuesday there will be a few virtue signallers on social media expressing their distaste with the Cup, despite the fact they don’t think about racing or horses for the other 363 days a year that the sport runs in Australia.

But it feels as though the “Nup to the Cup” brigade have received very little, if any, airtime this year.

And it’s not for a lack of trying. They have been loudly pushing the barrow in recent years but, as is often the case, sunlight is the best disinfectant and people have seen straight through their hyperbolic lies.

Despite claiming that Australians have lost interest in racing, audiences and attendances grew in 2023.

The live TV and streaming audience for Network 10’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup last year was 1.68 million – up 12 per cent on 2022.

Members of the anti-horse racing group Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses protest as the Melbourne Cup parade passes over Princes Bridge in 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

The growth in attendance was even more impressive. Nearly 84,500 streamed through the gates at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day last year, up 14.5 per cent.

And yet the activists would have us believe that people are increasingly turning their backs on racing.

All indications are that the numbers will be even stronger this year.

Sydney’s biggest race day of the year, The Everest, attracted a sold-out capacity crowd of 50,000 to Randwick – the first time that has happened since the race was launched in 2017 – and 1.36 million viewers to Seven’s TV coverage.

Mark Zahra pictured riding race winner Without A Fight during the 2023 Cup. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

I was at Derby Day on Saturday. It is arguably the strongest day’s racing of the Melbourne Cup Carnival and more than 80,000 were in attendance this year compared to 73,000 last year.

If that same growth follows through to the cup on Tuesday, crowds could exceed 90,000 – which hasn’t happened since 2017.

In a world where everything is open on public holidays and anything can be watched online at any time, growing the attendance of live sporting events is a tough task, but Sydney and Melbourne racing have done it.

Many millions won’t be at the track on Tuesday, but they will interact with the Melbourne Cup in some way. They’ll run an office sweep or have a mystery trifecta – their one bet of the year.

Caleb Bond says the Cup is all about ‘joy and excitement’. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Some punters celebrate a win at the 2022 Melbourne Cup. Picture: Jason Edwards

They’ll have no idea about horses and pick something to back based on the name or the colour of the silks. The most important thing is that it will bring them some joy and excitement.

They’ll dream of what they could do with the money if they win the trifecta.

The Melbourne Cup occupies a special and storied place in Australian history and while I once would have said I hope it will stay that way, I’m now inclined to think it will.

It has weathered the activist storm and come out the other side stronger than it has been in years. Racing is stronger than it has been in some time.

The whole caper is, ultimately, for the love of the horse. I pay far too much money to own them because I love them and there’s nothing better than watching your horse race.

And Australia loves it too.