Worth more than $1.5 million, the 2019 Australian Cup is a Group 1 race held in March each year. The Australian Cup is run over 2000 metres and is a weight for age race. It is a feature race in Melbourne’s Autumn Racing Carnival and is part of Flemington’s ‘Super Saturday’.

The Australian Cup, which is run at Melbourne’s Flemington racecourse, was first run in 1861 when it was won by Barwon. The Australian Cup is one of the Victorian Racing Club’s oldest races, with the first one being run thirty eight years before Federation.

Until 1978, the Australian Cup was a handicap race and first changed to weight-for-age conditions in 1979. The race was then returned back to handicap conditions from 1983 until 1987 when the Cup was once again made a weight-for-age race. The decision to revert back to handicap racing for four years was made due to a lack of quality race horses entering the competition.

After 1987, a concerted effort was made by the Victoria Racing Club to upgrade the Australian Cup’s quality and greater prize money was introduced to lure higher class race horses into the field. The upgrade was a success and the Australian Cup is now one of the most lucrative Group races in Australia.

The Australian Cup has varied in distance since its inaugural running. The race was originally 3,600 metres in length until 1943 when it was reduced to 3,500 metres. The Cup was again decreased in distance to 3,200m in 1963 and was finally changed to today’s length of 2000 metres in 1964.

While the Australian cup is run at Flemington racecourse each year, it was hosted by Caulfield Racecourse in 2007 due to a total reconstruction of the Flemington track.

The Australian Cup is the perfect race for horses that are strong stayers. Makybe Diva holds the record for the fastest time in the Australia Cup with 1 minute and 58.7 seconds in 2005. Other prominent horses to have won the event include Northerly (2001 and 2003), Lonhro (2004) and Zipping (2010).