While the nation collectively tries to back the winner of the big race at Flemington on Tuesday, November 5, Echuca Racing Club’s Moama Bowling Club Melbourne Cup Day meeting is sure to have a few surprises of its own.
The first of seven races will jump at 1pm with the Bourke Builders Handicap followed by the marathon 3200m Caledonian Hotel Road to Jericho Handicap, which is a direct entry race from the winner into the Jericho Cup at Warrnambool.
Race three is the Murphy’s Turf and Landscaping Maiden Plate at 2.15pm before breaking for the Lexus Melbourne Cup, which jumps at 3pm and will be broadcast live from Flemington on the big screen.
The Echuca Hotel and Echuca Toyota maiden plates are slated as races four and five and will begin at 3.26pm and 4.06pm, respectively.
The main event, the Moama Bowling Club Handicap, is a 1000m sprint and will begin at 4.54pm before the bet365 Handicap closes proceedings at 5.34pm.
Multiple Echuca trainers will have horses in races across the day, including Rhys Archard, Tayne Foster, Gwenda Johnstone, Michael Newton, Dennis Oliver and Ivan Lister.
2015 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne and her brother Patrick will saddle up two horses, including the top weight in the second race, Promised Land.
Local jockey Rose Hammond will be back in action, with three rides: Gwenda Johnstone’s II Americana in race four, Leslie Robertson’s Raging Monkey in race six and Tony Carter-Smith’s Mothereens in race seven.
Echuca Racing Club is part of an exclusive group of clubs that hold race meets on Melbourne Cup Day; only eight others across Victoria will host events on the public holiday.