Australia’s most famous horse race is fast approaching, and Australians are preparing to gather across the country to watch the Melbourne Cup.

The 24 horses and jockeys in this year’s race have been finalized for ‘the race that stops the nation’.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the 2024 Melbourne Cup.

When is the Melbourne Cup?

The Melbourne Cup will be held at Flemington Racecourse on Tuesday November 5.

What time does the Melbourne Cup start?

The Melbourne Cup will be the eighth race of the day held at Flemington.

The start of the race is scheduled for 3 p.m. AEDT.

Here are the departure times in each of Australia’s five time zones:

• 3:00 p.m. AEDT: ACT, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria
• 2:30 p.m. ACDT: South Australia
• 2:00 p.m. AEST: Queensland
• 1:30 p.m. ACST: Northern Territory
• 12:00 AWST: Western Australia

Who is the favorite for the Melbourne Cup?

This year’s Melbourne Cup appears to be a wide-open field, with early favorites withdrawn.

Irish raider Jan Brueghel was withdrawn from the race last week on veterinary advice.

Cox Plate winner Via Sistina has also been removed from the entry list, with the horse’s connections unwilling to back down so soon after a resounding victory at Mooney Valley.

Many UK trained horses Buckaroo, trained by Chris Waller, for this year’s Melbourne Cup. The six-year-old returned home to claim second place in the Caulfield Cup, a performance which pleased many observers.

Onesmoothoperator was also considered a chance to win the big race. Her Geelong Cup win was tremendous and some believe she can follow in the footsteps of Media Puzzle (2002), American (2010) and Dunaden (2011) in completing the Geelong-Melbourne Cup double.

Sea King also caught the eye of a few after a stellar performance to win the Bendigo Cup,

How can I watch the Melbourne Cup?

The Melbourne Cup will be broadcast by Nine Network, on Channel 9.

The race will also be broadcast on their streaming service, Nine Now.

ABC Sport will live blog the entire race day from Flemington.

You can also listen to the call live on ABC Radio, ABC Sport Digital and the ABC Listen app, from 2.30pm AEDT.

How long is the Melbourne Cup?

Australia’s most watched horse race is 3,200 meters in length.

The Melbourne Cup is reserved for stayers, those who run longer distances.

This is the distance since Australia converted to the metric system in 1972.

Previously, the race was run over two miles, or 3,219 m.

Sometimes people call the length of the Melbourne Cup “two metric miles”.

The winner will usually finish the race in approximately 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

Who won the Melbourne Cup last year?

Irish horse Without a fight created history in 2023 by crossing the line first to win the Melbourne Cup.

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Without A Fight became the first horse since 2001 to win both the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups in the same year.

Jockey Mark Zahra won back-to-back Cups after also riding the Gold Trip the year before.

Zahra became the first jockey to win consecutive Melbourne Cups on different horses since Harry White on Arwon in 1978 and Hyperno in 1979.

This was the ninth Melbourne Cup victory for the Freedman family as coaches, and the first with Anthony and Sam Freedman as co-coaches.