As a kid who grew up in Australia during the 1980s, one of the classic national rites of passage was choosing a horse in the Melbourne Cup. With our little rainbow racing slips in hand, torn from the day’s newspaper form guide, we’d all sit around and discuss our horse’s likely run and its odds of winning.

Later, as a young journalist covering the fashion rounds in Melbourne, attendance at the Birdcage was a must for celebrities or those hoping to at least be associated with the rich and famous. Along with Fashion Week, the Cup’s hallowed VIP ground was a veritable runway of recognisable faces topped with fancy hats.

Once the race that stopped the nation, the Melbourne Cup has been in decline for over a decade. Credit: Vince Caligiuri

But more recently, a change has been afoot. Slowly but surely, more Australians have been turning away from the Melbourne Cup. For some, it was looking back on those early rose-tinted, childhood memories where the induction into gambling was normalised, and knowing as an adult the havoc an addiction can wreak on people’s lives. For others, myself included, it came after we saw a run of seven horses die on Cup Day over eight years,........

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