2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup Trophy Embarks on 220-day Global Tour13 Apr 2010
Tour Ambassadors - Damien Oliver, Sheila Laxon, Wendy Green, Guy Grossi with Cup
To signal the beginning of the 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup’s journey, the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) staged a special farewell event at Flemington racecourse today, unveiling each of the 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour host destinations.
As part of this year’s 150th Melbourne Cup celebrations, the trophy will undertake an ambitious initiative which will see the trophy embark on a 220-day global tour to 10 international destinations, before returning to Australia, where it will visit a record 32 cities and regional and rural destinations across Australia and New Zealand, to celebrate the sporting, cultural and social significance of the ‘race that stops the nation’.
To mark the Melbourne Cup’s 150th anniversary, the VRC invited destinations intrinsically linked to the Melbourne Cup’s rich 150-year history to take part in the 2010 Tour, alongside towns and cities that are iconically Australian.
In it’s eighth year, the 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour will travel more than 41,000 kilometres, visiting Sale (VIC), Adelaide (SA), Streaky Bay (SA), Port Lincoln (SA), Jamestown (SA), Broken Hill (SA), Brisbane (QLD), Canberra (ACT), Geelong (VIC), Werribee (VIC), Sydney (NSW), Ballarat (VIC), Warrnambool (VIC), Birdsville (QLD), Richmond (QLD), Winton (QLD), Hobart (TAS), Perth (WA), Narrogin (WA), Port Hedland (WA), Auckland (NZ), Timaru (NZ), Hawkes Bay (NZ), Cambridge (NZ), Nowra (NSW), Condobolin (NSW), Scone (NSW), Wingham (NSW),Port Macquarie (NSW), Gold Coast (QLD), Ipswich (QLD), Darwin (NT) and Melbourne (VIC).
Each destination will stage a range of events to celebrate the arrival of the Cup, including gala balls, charity dinners, cocktail parties and civic receptions.
Since the Tour’s inception eight years ago, the Emirates Melbourne Cup has travelled more than 186,000 kilometres and visited more than 150 towns and cities across Australasia, providing communities with an exclusive opportunity to see one of the world’s most iconic trophy’s up close and personal.
Today’s launch played as the perfect arena for Hardy Brother Jewellers to officially handover the newly designed $150,000 Emirates Melbourne Cup, which has seen the three handled ‘loving cup’ return to the design zenith of the illustrious 1930 trophy won by the legendary Phar Lap.
The Tour aims to highlight the racing royalty linked to illustrious race, with rumours that retired Chief Steward, Des Gleeson; the first female trainer to win a Melbourne Cup, Sheila Laxon (2001); and familiar Melbourne Cup heroes Roy Higgins (1965 and 1967), John Letts (1972 and 1980), and John Marshall (1999), are amongst the names of a long list that will join the 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour. Each destination will be assigned a Tour Ambassador at a later date, so stay tuned!
