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Racegoers

The 2003 Melbourne Cup set the record for the highest number of racegoers, totalling 122, 376. Since then numbers have been capped at 120,000. Racegoers travel to Flemington by train, tram, car, boat or even helicopter. Car park picnics are a feature of Cup Day, with members of the Victoria Racing Club able to reserve sites to picnic in style and sip champagne. General admission gives racegoers access to the Hill or Lawn Stand, the Undercroft and the lawn areas.

The first Melbourne Cup, in 1861, was a low-key event watched by 4000 people. In 1877, Cup Day was gazetted as a public holiday for the people of Melbourne, and within a few years 100,000 visitors — or more than a third of Melbourne‘s population — were flocking to Flemington for the race.

Katherine Henry, Nadine Mesite, Liane Castission and Janine Lang enjoy a glass of bubbly on the lawns at Flemington, 2010.   Zoom

Katherine Henry, Nadine Mesite, Liane Castission and Janine Lang enjoy
a glass of bubbly on the lawns at Flemington, 2010.

  Slideshow Cup Day drinking
  Slideshow Spend a day at the 2010 Melbourne Cup with Isa and her friend Michelle