Random additional facts about the Melbourne Cup:
- Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday for Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria.
- The current record for attendance is 121,000 in 2000 which eclipsed the 74 year old record of 118,000
- Over Aus$25.8M is bet on the actual Melbourne Cup race with approximately Aus$50M bet over the entire day of racing.
- It is traditional that the women wear their finest clothes to the race with the highlight being the multitude of creative hat designs that are sported each year.