The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most famous annual Thoroughbred horse race. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".The Melbourne Cup has a long tradition, with the first race held in 1861. It was originally run over two mi (3.219 km) but was shortened to 3,200 m (1 mi 1,740 yd) in 1972 when Australia adopted the metric system. This reduced the distance by 18.688 m (61 ft 3+3⁄4 in), and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3:19.1 was accordingly adjusted to 3:17.9. The present record holder is the 1990 winner Kingston Rule with a time of 3:16.3.