Melbourne Cup takes in cities around the world as part of the Victoria Racing Club’s strategy to promote the Melbourne Cup and the Melbourne Cup Carnival internationally. The Tour has visited schools and aged-care and hospital facilities, and participated in community events and celebrations including race days across Australia and New Zealand. Frederick Standish, member of the Victorian Turf Club and steward on the day of the first Cup, was credited with forming the idea to hold a horse race and calling it the "Melbourne Cup". Seventeen horses contested the first Melbourne Cup on Thursday 7 November 1861, racing for the modest
Women's horse racing in Australia century. By the late 1920s, there were efforts to ban horse racing in Australia because the sport was seen to have a corrupting influence on Australian women. In 1934, the first female owned horse was entered in the Melbourne Cup. Women were involved in horse racing around the country by the 1930s. They were among the attendees at a 1939 race in Yass, New South Wales. By the 1950s, women were dominant in the horse racing industry, with several wealthy women such as Elizabeth Arden being well known owners and Elizabeth Dangerfield, Elsie Morris and Judy Johnson being well known