People’s Cup hits the home straight visiting Trentham and Lancefield

This year’s tour saw the People’s Cup travel to 39 destinations, with the final route spanning six countries including Australia, Japan, USA, New Zealand, England and Ireland. An all-star lineup of racing champions accompanied the iconic trophy on its journey including visiting 8 schools, 21 hospitals and aged care facilities and participating in 145 community events across the globe raising vital funds for local initiatives.

Trentham and Lancefield in Victoria were the final regional and rural towns to join racing history when they hosted the 18-carat-gold $750,000 trophy this week.

Champion jockey Jamie Kah accompanied the trophy to Trentham before three-time Lexus Melbourne Cup winning jockey Damien Oliver and former Chief Steward Des Gleeson took the Cup to Lancefield.

While visiting Trentham the coveted trophy took in the sights of Trentham Falls, before stopping into businesses to surprise locals with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hold and have their photo taken with the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy.

The Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy and Jamie also visited the local Country Fire Authority for morning tea with volunteers before attending a community event at Hotel Trentham to catch up with its famous owner former Boomer and NBA star Chris Anstey. Guests gathered to have their photo taken with the Cup before Jamie took to the stage to reflect on her favourite racing memories so far and what it would mean to win the race that stops a nation ®.

Jamie said she was excited to be part of the tour and the buildup to this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival.

“The countdown to Cup Week is on with just over two weeks until the festivities at Flemington kick off, and you can even feel the energy in Trentham,” Ms Kah said.

“I love being part of the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour and getting out to regional towns. It always amazes me to see the people’s reaction when they get the opportunity to hold the Cup.

“It was great to meet Chris, who is a very accomplished athlete and see the wonderful work he has done with reopening Hotel Trentham and pulling together this event.”

Chris Anstey, who purchased Hotel Trentham in July of last year, said it was great to bring the community together.

“I applied to host the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour to share a unique experience and bring the community together to celebrate Australian sport,” Mr Anstey said.

“People stop all around the world to watch the race and today you could even see that here in Trentham, where people were stopping in the street just to get a photo with the Cup.

“It was really special moment to share this with the town as well as put on a great event at Hotel Trentham.”

The Cup then made its way to Lancefield alongside Des and Damien to visit students from St. Mary’s Primary School for a special Lexus Melbourne Cup assembly before participating in a street parade with students from Lancefield Pony Club and the local police.

The community then gathered for an event at the Mechanics Institute to have their photo taken holding the Lexus Melbourne Cup and Damien and Des participated in a Q&A on their careers. Locals could also pat and feed carrots to past Cup winning horses who now call Living Legends home including 2015 winner Prince of Penzance, and 2020 winner Twilight Payment.

In the afternoon, the tour visited local sporting groups at Lancefield Park as well as stopping in to local businesses for photo opportunities. To conclude its epic journey the coveted trophy visited Lancefield Pub and the Lost Watering Hole for the communities’ last chance to hold this year’s Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy before it returns to Melbourne ahead of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Damien Oliver said it is a privilege to share the magic of the Lexus Melbourne Cup with rural and regional communities.

“This year I have visited a few towns across Australia and New Zealand and I really enjoyed being able to give back to the community and share the Lexus Melbourne Cup, which has been a huge part of my life, back with them.”

Trentham and Lancefield will be part of the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour National Sweep, an important VRC charity initiative which sees 24 rural and regional towns allocated a barrier and the correlating runner in the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup. The towns will be allocated their barrier on Monday 28 October at an event hosted at Flemington Racecourse.

Two representatives from each of the 24 destinations will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Flemington, courtesy of the VRC, to watch the Lexus Melbourne Cup and cheer home their horse. The town with the winning horse will be presented with $50,000 to put towards a charity of their choice.

Since its inaugural journey in 2003, the tour has travelled over one million kilometres, visiting more than 679 destinations to unite communities and provide a once-in-life-time opportunity to get up close and experience the magic of the People’s Cup. This includes visiting 490 schools, 422 hospitals and aged care facilities, participating in over 2245 community events and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for local fundraising initiatives.