The Victoria Racing Club is "poised to announce luxury car maker Lexus will take over the sponsorship of the Melbourne Cup," according to Brendan Cormick of THE AUSTRALIAN. There will also be an announcement "concerning a prizemoney increase for the great race." Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club "ridiculed the position of the Melbourne Cup." Once the nation’s richest race, "it has been gazumped by The Everest, Sydney’s newest race and the region’s most innovative and evolving sprint." In a full-page advertisement in The Australian promoting The Everest, worth A$10M ($7.6M) in its first year and set to be worth A$13M ($9.9M) next year, Racing NSW "boasted that the race was worth twice as much as the Melbourne Cup." VRC Chair Amanda Elliott said during Cup Day that her board of directors would "deliver a new sponsor for the Cup, an increase in prizemoney and a new grandstand in the next year." The deal that will see the Lexus brand associated with the race that "brings the racing world to Australia is set to be inked within weeks." Emirates Airlines has sponsored the Melbourne Cup for the past 14 years but advised the VRC that "it would not be taking up an option" to continue following the '16 installment (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/8).
