Cup Tour Kicks Off In Europe

For a 12-day period beginning July 10, the 2018 Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy will be touring Britain and Ireland with promoters no doubt hoping to lure even more foreign participation for this year's race which will be worth a record A$7.3 million. The almost four-month long tour will take in 37 destinations, mostly in Australia, but will be kick started in London, July 10. From there, the Cup will be brought to Newmarket, Somerset and Newbury over the following week before hopping across to The Curragh on July 18 to begin a five-day tour of Ireland which culminates back at The Curragh for G1 Darley Irish Oaks weekend. In between, it will stop off at the yards of Joseph O'Brien and Willie Mullins who provided the first and third home in last year's Cup with Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Max Dynamite (Fr) (Great Journey {Jpn}). A new feature of this year's tour will be a stop off in Korea to celebrate the running of the Korean Cup in Seoul in September.

Commenting on the dual hemisphere tour Victoria Racing Club chairman Amanda Elliott said, “The appeal of our illustrious race stretches far beyond Flemington. The Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour gives us an important opportunity to share the magic of the Cup with people everywhere. It has become one of the most important things we do at the VRC. We are custodians of something that means so much to so many–a day of national unity symbolised by the iconic three-handled Cup.”