The Melbourne Cup is worth an estimated $5.5 million and is raced over a 3200 metre track which literally "stops a nation". At 3pm on the first Tuesday on November, people across Australia will stop in their tracks to watch the 3 minute 20 second race with Victoria given a public holiday to celebrate the day. Over the course of the day, there are 10 races held, starting at 10.20 am and ending at 5.15 pm. Melbourne Cup bookmakers should receive the field and form guide on the Saturday before the race, which is scheduled to be the 31st of October. This form allows bettors and bookmakers to review the final barriers and statistics of the race.
With Australia's greatest handicap race being held in November and more than $140 million wagered on the race, a Melbourne Cup bookmaker will not be hard to find. Majority of good online bookmakers will offer odds on the Melbourne Cup with the first Pre-Post bets open quite some time before November. As the Melbourne Cup is a high stakes race, Melbourne Cup bookmakers should be offering the highest online betting limits for the event as many people will wager more than usual on this particular race. Reliable bookmakers will also operate at the lowest bookmaking margins to allow customers to recap the benefits of their Melbourne Cup winning. To attract bettors to their sites, bookmakers will offer punters free bets on the Melbourne Cup if they sign up with them. This means that punters will need to open an account with the bookmaker, place a bet and then they will receive their free bet. Also check whether the bookmaker is offering odds on all the Spring Racing Carnival races. If they are, why not check out their odds for these races too? Closer to the race date, bookmakers will be offering all standard racing bets including: