The 2024 Melbourne Autumn Racing Carnival features a host of top level racing in the early months of the year alongside and preceding the classic Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival. The Melbourne Autumn Festival runs late January until the end of March. The headline meetings include Blue Diamond Stakes Day in February and Flemington’s Newmarket Handicap Day in March.
All of the autumn race meetings in Victoria are hosted by the Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) and take place at the major metropolitan tracks around the state. The carnival is also host to the first Group 1 race of the new season when the CF Orr Stakes (1400m) lights-up Sandown Racecourse in early to mid-February.
The 2024 Melbourne Autumn Racing Carnival takes place from late January – April each year and is headlined by events such as the Blue Diamond Stakes, Australian Guineas and the Newmarket Handicap. The All-Star Mile is another highlight of the autumn and runs in https://888b.study/.
Derby day is arguably the best day of racing on the Australia racing calendar with every race on the day being graded a Group 1, Group 2 or Group 3. This is the only race meeting in Victoria each year that can boast that each race is a Group race.
Melbourne Cup Day is the single biggest event on the Australian horse racing calendar as it is host to the country’s premier thoroughbred event, the Group 1 $8.56 million Melbourne Cup (3200m).
The Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival is equally as big as the Melbourne edition. There are 18 Group 1 races with over $40m in prize money. The first half is primarily based at Rosehill Gardens with 7 Group 1 races and then the attention turns to Royal Randwick for a simply massive program of racing, starting with a real show stopper, the Golden Slipper, the richest race in the world for 2yr olds and which was first run in 1957.