The 2021 Melbourne Cup over 3200 metres at Flemington, worth $8 million, was run in front of a crowd capped at 10,000 under COVID-19 rules, with every runner CT scanned beforehand.
The story of the spring was Incentivise, who arrived on a long winning run through the Makybe Diva Stakes, Turnbull Stakes and Caulfield Cup, chasing the first Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup double since Ethereal in 2001. The defending champion Twilight Payment returned from Ireland, Chris Waller's star mare Verry Elleegant came in as a multiple Group 1 winner, and Andrew Balding sent out Spanish Mission.
