2011 Melbourne Cup 2011 Melbourne Cup The 2011 Emirates Melbourne Cup, the 151st running of Australia's most prestigious Thoroughbred horse race, was held on Tuesday, 1 November 2011 at 3:00 pm (AEDT), at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse. Dunaden won in a photo finish over Red Cadeaux in the closest finish in Melbourne Cup history. The winning jockey, Frenchman Christophe Lemaire, had arrived in Australia less than a day previously as a late replacement for Craig Williams. Six out of seven finishers were international horses. Third placed Lucas Cranach was the best locally trained finisher and fourth placed was the pre-race favourite, the 2010 winner,
Horse racing (bred in Great Britain) became the only racehorse to ever win the Melbourne Cup three times, let alone in consecutive years. In harness racing, Cane Smoke had 120 wins, including 34 in a single season, Paleface Adios became a household name during the 1970s, while Cardigan Bay, a pacing horse from New Zealand, enjoyed great success at the highest levels of American harness racing in the 1960s. More recently, Blacks A Fake has won four Inter Dominion Championships, making him the only horse to complete this feat in Australasia's premier harness race. Competitive endurance riding commenced in Australia in 1966,