Melbourne Cup 2021 Betting
The Melbourne Cup is the biggest prize in Australian thoroughbred horse racing, always run on the first Tuesday in November at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It is the biggest betting event of the year in Australia, attracting millions of bets from around the globe across all of the top horse racing betting sites.
Melbourne Cup commentator Matt Hill - who spoke to Gambling.com for Episode 3 of The Knowledge Podcast - explained how he has to "concentrate so much more" than usual due to the number of people watching, which should give you a good idea as to the magnitude of this race.
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Melbourne Cup Betting Tips
How To Bet On The Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup has the same betting options as other major races, like the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham horse racing or the Grand National. These three types of bets are the most common wagers placed each year during the Melbourne Cup festival:
- Each-Way | It's the most popular Melbourne Cup betting option. You back a horse to win or place - placings generally go down to 4th position, but sometimes 5th or 6th, depending on your bookmaker. If the horse wins, you get a return on the win part of your bet, and the place part. If the horse places, you get a return on your place bet.
- Forecast | A good alternative to the outright win bet, this involves picking the first 2 horses to finish in the correct order. You can go each-way on this bet (reverse forecast), or pick the first 3 in a Trifecta, or the first 4 in a Superfecta.
- Betting Without | This is a new market, where gamblers can place a bet on a horse to win as if the favourite was not running. It's not always available, and is most common when there is a very strong favourite.
Melbourne Cup Odds Explained
The odds in the Melbourne Cup are presented to Australian punters in a different way. Each of the 24 horses running in the Melbourne Cup will be presented as a dollar amount. This means that if a horse is valued at A$5, every dollar you bet on that horse will return A$5 if it wins. To convert this into fractional odds, punters can split the A$5 payout into a profit of A$4 with a A$1 outlay. This would give odds of 4/1.
The best online betting sites like to provide Melbourne Cup odds in this fashion as an alternative to fractional or decimal odds as it may be easier for a first time gambler to understand on the day of the Cup. Most online bookmakers will, however, provide all bets in fractional or decimal odds for more traditional punters too.
Consider these points when plotting your horse racing betting strategy.
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Melbourne Cup 2020 Prize Money
Prize money for the Melbourne Cup has been above AU$6 million since 2010, with trophies valued at a staggering $250,000 dollars. Melbourne Cup prize money in 2020 totals AU$7million, the first 12 horses to finish awarded from that pool as follows:
- Winner - AU$4million (plus $250,000 in trophies)
- Second - AU$1million
- Third - AU$500,000
- Fourth - AU$250,000
- Fifth - AU$175,000
- Sixth - AU$150,000
- Sixth-12th - AU$150,000
The owner of each prize winner in the Melbourne Cup receives 85% of the prize money, with the trainer receiving 10% and the jockey getting 5%. There is a AU$500,000 bonus for the owner of the winning horse if it has also won the Irish St. Leger run the September prior to the Melbourne Cup.
The Race That Stops a Nation
As mentioned above, Australia's Melbourne Cup is known to the locals as ‘the race that stops a nation’ and is the most coveted prize in Australian thoroughbred horse racing. It is a huge horse racing betting event, run on the first Tuesday in November each year - a day designated as a national holiday.
More than 200,000 eager bettors flock to Flemington Racecourse on the day of the Melbourne Cup. Offices across Australia stop work close to race time, and throughout the country it is televised on screens at local race tracks.
The Melbourne Cup reaches around 650 million people through its live television broadcast and over the course of the four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival, over AU$650 million is wagered - $350 million of that spent betting on Cup day itself.
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Interesting fact about the Melbourne Cup:
In the Melbourne Cup's 157-year history, only five horses have won the Cup more than once, Makybe Diva holding the record of three. The 2017 winner Rekindled did not return for 2018, but owner Lloyd Williams was looking for a third straight Melbourne Cup win with betting favourite Yucatan.
Most Recent Melbourne Cup Winners' Odds
| Year | Winner | Odds | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Vow And Declare | 10/1 | Craig Williams | Danny O’Brien |
| 2018 | Cross Counter | 8/1 | Kerrin McEvoy | Charlie Appleby |
| 2017 | Rekindling | 14/1 | Corey Brown | Joseph O'Brien |
| 2016 | Almandin | 10/1 | Kerrin McEvoy | Robert Hickmott |
| 2015 | Prince of Penzance | 100/1 | Michelle Payne | Darren Weir |
| 2014 | Protectionist | 7/1 | Ryan Moore | Andreas Wohler |
| 2013 | Fiorente | 6/1f | Damien Oliver | Gai Waterhouse |
| 2012 | Green Moon | 19/1 | Brett Prebble | Robert Hickmott |
| 2011 | Dunaden | 15/2 | Christophe Lemaire | Mikel Delzangles |
| 2010 | Americain | 12/1 | Gerald Mosse | Alain de Royer-Dupre |
| 2009 | Shocking | 9/1 | Corey Brown | Mark Kavanagh |
| 2008 | Viewed | 40/1 | Black Shinn | Bart Cummings |
| 2007 | Efficient | 16/1 | Michael Rodd | Graeme Rogerson |
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Hi, I'm Diarmuid Nolan
"Diarmuid is a published horse racing journalist and creator of the #racehour twitter community which produces a weekly podcast and a home for all things horse racing throughout the flat and jumps season across the UK and Ireland."
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Reviewer since October 2019
