The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is an extended horseracing meeting that takes place at Flemington racecourse in Victoria, Australia featuring several individual racedays that count as among Australia's greatest horseracing meetings. The 2012 Spring Carnival takes place on November 3 - November 10, with the 2013 Spring Carnival scheduled for the same period.

As well as being a feast of horse racing, the Spring Carnival is also the social highlight of the year for Melbourne - just one look at the exuberant array of hats on display can prove that, as Australia's social glitterati gather to be seen and photographed. The Carnival is an epicentre for new fashion and glitzy parties.

The Spring Carnival has always been noted for generating huge betting pools on all of its races. There are enormously big purses for the races themselves, with the VRC putting up millions upon millions in prize money during the festival.

The whole festival is of course built around the Melbourne Cup itself, Australia's single greatest and most famous horse race, which has dominated the ambitions of trainers, owners and jockeys alike ever since its inception back in 1861. In 2012 and 2013, further history will be made as the race takes on new dimensions in the modern age.

There are also plenty of other Group One races besides the Cup. These include the Victoria Derby, the VRC Crown Oaks, the Caulfield Cup, the Cox Plate and the Stakes - all attract huge crowds and a great deal of betting activity, some offering hints as to form and conditions for the Melbourne Cup itself.

More than 400,000 attended the Melbourne Cup Carnival in 2006, a bumper year, while in 2011 the event was attended by a total of 355,086 fans. In 2012 and 2013, the attendance is likely to be massive once again. There's a great website http://members.iinet.net.au/~melbournecup/ dedicated to the Melbourne Cup where you can learn much more about this event.

Melbourne Cup Carnival Racecourse	Flemington
The Melbourne Cup Carnival is held at the grand old Flemington Racecourse. Many celebrities have graced the racecourse throughout its rich history and Flemington, like Ascot in the UK, is now known for its fashionable attendees and its stature as a social meeting place (and the place to be seen) as much as it is for hosting some of Australia's most important horse races. Flemington offers both a challenging course and decades upon decades of racing tradition - indeed a trip to Flemington is to sample an ingrained slice of Australian history as much as a major sporting event.
The first race that was held at Flemington Racecourse took place in 1840. The first Melbourne Cup was run there in 1861, and recently the racecourse was deemed to be a National Heritage Site connoting it as a true Australian landmark.

Melbourne Cup Meeting - Feature Races

Aside from the 'race that stops a nation', there are a number of major races worth betting on.

Victoria Derby This thoroughbred race is run over 2,500 metres and marks the beginning of Melbourne Cup week. Total prize money stands at $1.5m, with the 2011 winner being Sangster, ridden by Hugh Bowmen.

Crown Oaks Once known as the VRC Oaks, this is for three-year-old fillies and is run over 2,500 metres also. The 2011 winner was Mosheen.

Emirates Stakes The Emirates Stakes is run over a shorter 1,600-metre course and is worth $1m in prize money. Stakes Day is traditionally the final day of the Carnival.