Simple explanation of what the Melbourne Cup is and how to bet on the Melbourne Cup, odds, horses

So you want to get involved in the Melbourne Cup but you don’t know anything about it. We’re not sure how that’s possible if you live in Australia, but sure, let’s go with it.

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Well, while you’re enjoying The Race That Stops The Nation and maybe even a public holiday depending on where you live, you may be interested in having a flutter on it.

If you’re going to bet, do so responsibly; and here’s how you’d do it.

WHAT IS THE MELBOURNE CUP?

It’s a horse race, that includes 24 horses (although sometimes fewer if they are withdrawn, aka ‘scratched’ – that’s not usually literal) trying to be the fastest around a 3200-metre trip of Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne’s inner northwest.

If they are the fastest, they earn $4.5 million for their owner, trainer and jockey. The horse does not get the money as horses have no need to barter for goods and services.

Each horse has odds based on how likely the betting public and bookmakers believe they are to win. The horse viewed as most likely to win has the smallest odds; ie if you bet a dollar, you might only get a few back, rather than a couple of hundred.

It happens at 3pm on the first Tuesday in November – this year, that’s November 3.

HOW DO I BET?

First, you need to pick your horse.

There are a couple of tried-and-true methods. One is to have a mate who follows horse racing; then you can blame them when their pick loses.

Another is to look at the colours and names and pick your favourites. Maybe your horse’s jockey will look like he’s playing for your footy team, or you’re a fan of their weird and wacky names.

Or you could try and analyse the form guide – you know, that confusing bit with all of the tiny writing in the middle of the paper? No, not the real estate listings. Or the classifieds. The other part.

There’ll be plenty of information in there about how the horses have gone recently. It might not make sense to you though, so you might just want to look at the column with the odds and find the smallest number.

Once you’ve picked your horse, you need to place your bet.

They have the internet on computers now, and even telephones, so you can sign up to a betting website and put some money on that way from the safety of your living room.

You can also take the traditional morning trip to the local betting house.

Once you get there – and you’ll want to get there early – you can ask one of the operators there to help you out or fill out one of the cards. They’ll have Melbourne Cup-specific ones which make it nice and simple.

You can also place bets in person at the track though to be honest, if you’re literally at the Melbourne Cup, you probably don’t need us to explain what the Melbourne Cup is.

WHAT KINDS OF BETS ARE THERE?

The simplest bet is a win bet. In those, you only make money if your horse comes first.

You can also bet on a horse to ‘place’ – that means if they finish in the top three, you win, but at less lucrative odds than with the win bet.

Then you can get exotic. There are quinellas (first two in any order), exactas (first two in order), trifectas (first three in any order) and first fours (first … you can probably guess this one).

For example in 2019, the dividends for those bet types were as follows: The quinella paid $82.40, the exacta paid $175, the trifecta paid $2,953.40 and the first four paid $79,381.40.

Of course, those numbers also reflect how difficult it is to tip them, so don’t expect to just randomly win $80k.

SO… GOT A TIP FOR WHO’LL WIN?

Nope, but our experts will, or you can go off historical patterns.

No.4 has won the most times with 13. Barriers 5 and 11 have won eight times each.

Or you could decide to base your pick around a horse’s jockey and the weight they’ll be carrying (heavier = slower, that’s just physics).

The latter is important because it’s a handicap race; the horses seen to be in the best form are given extra weight to punish them.

The average weight of a winner is around 54kg so you probably want a horse roughly halfway down the list?

But there’s one really important factor to keep in mind – the favourite doesn’t always win. It actually hasn’t happened since 2013, and the favourite has only finished on the podium four times since 2006.

Last year’s winner Half Yours was the favourite in the lead-up to the race, but then gamblers backed the wrong horse, quite literally. Fools! All of them! Except the ones that weren’t!

The last three favourites finished 19th, 9th and 14th respectively, and the average odds of the winner this century are around $19. So feel free to pick a dark horse! (Literally or figurately, we suppose.)

Potential Melbourne Cup field (as of October 30)

Number – Name – Weight – Trainer – Jockey

1 Sons And Lovers (GB) 57.5kg Joseph O’Brien Ryan Moore

2 Trustyourinstinct (IRE) 57kg Joseph O’Brien James McDonald

3 Defiantly (FR) 56.5kg Joseph O’Brien Dylan Browne McMonagle

4 Middle Earth (GB) 56.5kg Ciaron Maher Mark Zahra

5 Vauban (FR) 56.5kg Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott TBC

6 Knight’s Choice 56.5kg John Symons & Sheila Laxon Robbie Dolan

7 Royal Supremacy (IRE) 56kg Ciaron Maher TBC

8 Enfjaar (IRE) 56kg Roger Varian Ray Dawson (unconfirmed)

9 Wine Dark Sea (GB) 56kg Harry Charlton TBC

10 Juja Kibo (IRE) 55kg Ciaron Maher Sam Clipperton

11 Asterix (NZ) 55kg Chris Waller TBC

12 Goodie Two Shoes (IRE) 55kg Joseph O’Brien Wayne Lordan

13 Soul Of Spain (IRE) 54.5kg Chris Waller Tommy Berry

14 Onesmoothoperator (USA) 54.5kg Tim Fitzsimmons Declan Bates

15 Zahrann (IRE) 54.5kg Ciaron Maher Ben Melham

16 Hopewell Rock (IRE) 54.5kg George Boughey Zac Lloyd

17 So You Are 54kg Bjorn Baker Rachel King

18 Future History (GB) Gregory Hickman 53.5kg

19 James J Braddock (IRE) 53.5kg Joseph O’Brien Craig Williams

20 Point Of Law (GB) 53kg Ciaron Maher Ethan Brown

21 Strictly Business 53kg Thomas Carberry TBC

22 Mr Monaco (GB) 52.5kg Ciaron Maher Jabez Johnstone (a)

23 Zakouma 52kg Grahame Begg William Pike

24 Shockletz (NZ) 51kg Ciaron Maher Harry Coffey