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The Story of the Melbourne Cup – Australia’s Greatest Race

With its well-deserved reputation as ‘the race that stops a nation,’ The Melbourne Cup has played an integral role in Australia’s sporting and cultural life and harbours a unique place within the nation’s psyche.  For just over three minutes on the first Tuesday of each November, the country, and much of the rest of the world, truly does hold its breath.  Fortunes are made and lost, as are reputations, and with prize money totalling some $6 million the race is one of the most lucrative of its kind anywhere in the world.

2010 marks the 150^th anniversary of the Cup, and to celebrate the milestone the Victoria Racing Club has commissioned this excellent documentary, which was written and produced by Channel Seven reporter Neil Kearney.

Boasting a compelling narrative and an arresting array of archive footage, the works charts the Cup’s origins, the roles of the early pioneers who helped shape its appeal, as well as the trainers, jockeys and owners that made the sport great.  Once such proponent was Robert Bagot, the first secretary of the Victorian Racing Club, who cannily provided members with two ladies tickets in the early years of the race, concluding that ‘where ladies went, men would follow.’  He was right, and spectators have thronged the stands at Flemington ever since.

But of course the race would be nothing without the 24 thoroughbreds that comprise its annual field, and legendary horses such as Archer, Carbine, three-time winner Makybe Dive and the incomparable Phar Lap are each given their due.  It’s a thrilling and expertly elucidated story, buoyed by interviews with numerous luminaries of the sport including Bart Cummings, Lee Friedman and Damien Oliver, and the end result comprises both a fascinating historical journey and an important piece of richly crafted Australia.

Audio & Video

The 87-minute documentary is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with 16:9 anamorphic enhancement that fills the screen nicely.  Picture quality necessarily varies due to the age of some of the source material, but otherwise picture quality is faultless.  A DD 2.0 audio track is on offer, and proves more than adequate.

Special Features

Past Races

The principal bonus feature, and an excellent one for lovers of the sport, is each of the past 13 Melbourne Cups, from 1997 to 2009, shown in their entirety.  It’s a perfect companion to the documentary itself, and watching horses like Might and Power, Makybe Diva and 2009 winner Shocking storming home to victory more than whets ones appetite for the 150^th race in 2010. 

Phar Lap

Also included is a four-minute compendium of footage on the legendary Phar Lap, some of it extremely rare.  The featurette shows the iconic gelding reaching a clear victory in the 1930 Melbourne Cup, and features both archive material and contemporary shots of the horse’s mounted display at the Melbourne Museum, where it continues to attract many thousands of visitors each year.