The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most famous horse race and one of the most famous sporting events to take place each year. For many year’s now it is a race that Connolly’s RED MILLS have a had a close association with.

It takes place at 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 2019 Melbourne Cup will be held on Tuesday 5th November.

Each year Connolly’s RED MILLS send feed to Australia for our customers competing in “the race that stops a nation”. We manufacture all our feed here at the mill in Goresbridge and it is subsequently sent all over the world. We currently export to over 75 countries. We are proud to have fed 6 Melbourne Cup winners including Rekindling, Protectionist, Dunaden, Americain, Media Puzzle and Vintage Crop.

Timing is Everything 

Making sure the feed lands on time and liaising with the trainers with potential runners to confirm their feed requirements is vital. We are looking after feeding some of the best horses in the world and it’s critical that their diet remains consistent when they are travelling. Horses are resilient and most are accustomed to the travel but to maintain good health and performance it is essential that their nutritional needs are looked after.

All of our export products in packaged in our NFMS (Nutrient Fresh Management System) packaging. The innovative RED MILLS NFMS (nutrient fresh management system) packaging uses natural preservation to maintain perfect freshness in horse feed products for up to 12 months – vastly extending the shelf life of each product. This means that no matter where in the world you open a bag of Connolly’s RED MILLS feed, it will be as fresh as the day it was made here in Goresbridge, Ireland.

Australian authorities require the feed to be irradiated; this takes place at a facility in Mayo. Once this is done and the pallets containing the feed return to Goresbridge it is collected and flown to Melbourne via DHL this can take up to 48 hours. Once the feed arrived in Melbourne it needs to clear customs before being delivered to the stables. Normally we aim to have the feed arrive a week ahead of the horses.

We also work closely with IRT International Horse Transport who look after the transportation of the horses. They keep us informed of the whereabouts of the horses and in turn we advise them of when the feed is due to be dispatched for customs clearance & delivery to the quarantine stables.

We would like to wish all our customers the very best of luck at the upcoming Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival and Melbourne Cup.

Nutrition plays an important role in preparing horses for racing at home and abroad, if you require more information, why not get in touch with our nutritional experts.

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