The centrepiece of the Melbourne Cup Carnival is undoubtedly the Melbourne Cup race itself, but there’s plenty more to get excited about throughout a huge week in the Australian horse racing calendar. Find out the biggest highlights from each day of Melbourne Cup Carnival, so you know what to look forward to and the best days to get hold of Melbourne Cup tickets.
Melbourne Cup Carnival 2023 day-by-day highlights
Victoria Derby Day
The first day of the Melbourne Cup Festival is known as Victoria Derby Day. This is a massive event in its own right, despite inevitably being viewed as the prelude to the Melbourne Cup itself. Other notable races on the opening day of the Carnival include the Cantala Stakes and Empire Rose Stakes, as well as the Hotham Handicap. This race has a direct impact on the Melbourne Cup as the winning horse entitled to the final sport in the Melbourne Cup field.
Melbourne Cup Day
After a couple of days to crank up the anticipation even further, we come to Tuesday which is Melbourne Cup Day. The state of Victoria is given a Bank Holiday, while much of the country pauses to watch the action unfold. The event should be as spectacular as always, even more so now the Flemington Racecourse crowd is back to full strength following the removal of COVID-related restrictions.
VRC Oaks Day
The main event may be over come Thursday, but VRC Oaks Day guarantees there’s still plenty of high class Melbourne Cup Carnival racing to look forward. The big $1 million race is supported by a great undercard, with two Group 3’s – the Red Roses Stakes and the Ottawa Stakes – each worth $200,000.
Champions Day (formerly Mackinnon Stakes Day)
The Melbourne Cup Carnival ends in style, as Champions Day is a world-class racing event in its own right. With two Group 1’s and a Group 2 on the card, this is a truly high-quality day of action, helping to formulate horse racing’s overall world rankings and bringing the curtain down on the 2023 Melbourne Cup Carnival in a fitting manner.
Melbourne Cup Carnival Dates 2023
The Melbourne Cup Carnival runs on four days in the first half of November, featuring the Victoria Derby Day, then Melbourne Cup Day, followed by Oaks Day, and culminating in Champion Stakes Day. The table below summarises exactly when the action will take place, so take note to make sure you don’t miss any of the action.
| Melbourne Cup Carnival Dates | MC Carnival Race Days | MC Carnival Feature Races |
| Saturday 4 November 2023 | Victoria Derby Day | Victoria Derby |
| Tuesday 7 November 2023 | Melbourne Cup Day | Melbourne Cup |
| Thursday 9 November 2023 | VRC Oaks Day | VRC Oaks |
| Saturday 11 November 2023 | VRC Champions Stakes Day | Champions Stakes |
Melbourne Cup Dresses 2024
Fashion has always played a big part in the Melbourne Cup Carnival. It is, after all, a major social event with a strict dress code, where many visitors come to see and be seen. The importance of fashion is so great that there’s even a racewear competition called ‘Fashion On The Fields’ being organised annually ever since 1962.
Naturally, the competition draws a lot of attention, which is why you’ll see women dressed in extravagant Melbourne Cup dresses and dapper men in elegant suits. To complete the look, women traditionally pair their Melbourne Cup dresses with an intricate hat or a fascinator.
Melbourne Cup Holiday
Australians working within the Melbourne area and parts of Victoria have an additional reason to look forward to the race. For them, ever since the late 1800s, Melbourne Cup Day has become an actual public holiday. Although other parts of the country don’t officially celebrate the Melbourne Cup Holiday, in practice, many people choose to take a day off.
Melbourne Cup Carnival FAQ
For any additional questions you might have about the Melbourne Cup Carnival, you can take refer to our FAQ section below.
The Melbourne Cup Carnival in 2023 runs from November 4th until November 11th. That means that in 2024, Melbourne Cup Day itself will be held on the 7th of November.
It is, depending on where in Australia you live. Melbourne Cup day is a public holiday, but not a national public holiday. That means that only the residents of Melbourne and certain parts of Victoria get a day off.
Victoria Day is the first major race day of the carnival. It is held on the Saturday before the Melbourne Cup. The VRC Oaks race is held on Thursday, after the Cup. Finally, the VRC Stakes day is held on the Saturday after the VRC Oaks, and is traditionally known as ‘Family Day’. Each of the days is full of races, with the last one also hosting events dedicated to children and families.
