Race to get handle on 'people's cup'

JOINT EFFORT: Jordan Gawler,9(left) and Nathan Banks-Sinclair, 9, share the weight of the Melbourne Cup.

It's worth $187,000, weighs about 4kg and is 18-carat gold and only winners get to touch it.

For anyone else getting close and personal with the 2014 Melbourne Cup, you need gloves.

The trophy, which in November will be presented to the winner of the Melbourne Cup, arrived in Wairarapa on Saturday as part of its annual promotional tour across New Zealand and Australia.

The Wairarapa Racing Club tendered to the Victoria Racing Club for the cup's visit, hoping the synergy of both clubs celebrating 150 years this year would win over the tour organisers.

The club's hierarchy enjoyed an hour with the cup in a media event on Saturday morning at the racecourse, joined by South Wairarapa mayor Adrienne Staples and Trust House marketing manager Nikki Burns, before a two-hour public session, with children's activities, at Anzac Hall in Featherston.

Former jockey Michael Clarke, who won the cup on At Talaq in 1986, accompanied the cup as a tour ambassador.

Tour manager Joe McGrath said the tours were about celebrating "the people's cup" with the people.

"We're very committed to providing community engagement," he said.

The Victoria Racing Club received 70 applications for the cup to visit and Wairarapa was one of 34 chosen.

He said 42 horses bred in New Zealand have won the Melbourne Cup.

Mr Clarke said the race has grown since his day, and is strongly promoted around the world.

"There's so many great jockeys who haven't won the Melbourne Cup. The jockey that wins it, he's in the right spot, right time, right horse."

Mr Clarke said he has also won the Japan Cup but the Melbourne Cup was "the highlight of my racing career".

Tauherenikau's Jubilee convenor Graham Hodder said the club had hoped to get the cup for a race day in October but the timing wasn't suitable.

"Our brief was to give as many people as possible a chance to see the cup. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing it's the first time I have seen it."

The cup also visited the Tin Hut, Tauherenikau, Pukemanu Tavern in Martinborough and the Kuripuni Sports Bar in Masterton over the weekend.