Not even Eddie could arrest ratings decline: The good, bad and ugly of the Melbourne Cup

There was a lot that was good about this year’s Melbourne Cup, some bad, and one big ugly moment that marred the first Tuesday in November.

The Good

Tuesday’s race was the second successive Melbourne Cup run fatality free. The spotlight has certainly been on the racing industry since the death of Anthony Van Dyck in 2020, but stringent vetting requirements have meant Racing Victoria has taken no risk in making sure every horse running in the Cup is fully fit.

Jockey Mark Zahra is sprayed with champagne after winning the Cup aboard Gold Trip. Credit: Joe Armao

Gold Trip was a worthy winner of Tuesday’s race, despite having only won one race before Tuesday. His form going into the race included a fourth in the 2020 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, regarded as one of, if not, the world’s greatest races.

Four times Gold Trip had placed at group 1 level, including in this year’s Caulfield Cup, and in winning the Cup, he became the first horse since Makybe Diva to win the race while donning the No.1 saddle cloth as topweight.

Ciaron Maher and David Eustace added a Cup to their incredible record, which also includes a Cox Plate, while Maher completed the trilogy of Melbourne’s spring majors, having won the Caulfield Cup with Jameka in his own name in 2016.

Mark Zahra made up for his missed spring of 2020, where he was suspended for attending an illegal Airbnb party during COVID-19 lockdowns. He would have partnered Verry Elleegant in last year’s Melbourne Cup, but made amends on Tuesday to claim his first Cup.

Meanwhile, the placed horses - Emissary and High Emocean - were the Geelong and Bendigo Cup winners respectively, and they beat highly fancied import Deauville Legend in fourth.

The Bad

It was beyond anyone’s control, but the weather was atrocious.

About 73,000 people attended Flemington on Tuesday, but that figure would have been closer to 90,000 had it not been the coldest Cup day since 1913. The Bureau of Meteorology recorded a top temperature of just 13.3 degrees.

Gold Trip soaks up the adulation on a soggy Cup day. Credit: Getty Images

The track was tested at Saturday’s Derby Day meeting, but had recovered beautifully by Tuesday morning, only for rain during the race meeting to turn it into a slop. That only exacerbated the margins in the Cup and certainly denied a number of horses the chance to show their true talent. That takes nothing away from Gold Trip, who thrived in the conditions.

From a TV perspective, the free-to-air ratings continued their decline year-on-year too.

In a media release, Paramount said its race audience across television and 10 Play averaged 1.5 million viewers nationally, down from 1.85 million in 2021.

It was the fourth of five Cup carnivals on Ten, since they pinched the rights from Seven in a deal worth $100 million to the Victoria Racing Club. Ten’s broadcast went head-to-head with Sydney’s Big Dance meeting on Seven.

Eddie McGuire was recruited by Ten to boost their Cup carnival coverage.Credit: Eddie Jim

Eddie McGuire, who continues to host Millionaire Hot Seat and Footy Classified on Channel Nine, owner of this masthead, was added to Ten’s broadcast team this year, alongside a star-studded roster which includes Francesca Cumani, Michelle Payne and Glen Boss, among others. McGuire was recruited in an attempt to grab more eyeballs, but the move has not paid dividends.

SEN commentator and racing expert Gerard Whateley said his family missed the Cup at home because they had turned the TV onto Seven, where Bruce McAvaney and Jason Richardson were hosting the Sydney races.

“There’s a whole community of people who are conditioned to knowing where the races are for 51 weeks, and they just flicked the telly on [to Seven],” Whateley said on Wednesday.

“I don’t think that [Ten deal] has been a success. Outside the racing bubble, and this is the race that stops the nation, people missed it because they were looking in the wrong spot for it.”

The Ugly

The dumping of 1000 litres of “oily sludge” at the 1500-metre mark of the Flemington racetrack on the morning of the Cup, by an activist who somehow gained access to the course.

The culprit alleged in a statement that they were a problem gambler, but said the act was targeted at Victoria Racing Club not only because of gambling but also because of the recent floods in the area, which Flemington was protected from due to its flood-prevention wall.

The damage to the track had the potential to put horses and jockeys at risk. Thankfully, the large patch of grass affected was far enough from the running rail for the races to proceed, and track managers worked around the clock on Wednesday to replace that lawn in time for Thursday’s Oaks meeting.

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