The Big Dance Tips, Betting, Odds, Horses & More 2024

Held at Randwick Racecourse on Melbourne Cup Day, The Big Dance is one of Australia’s and Racing New South Wales’, many new, lucrative Group 1 races introduced to the elite Australian racing circuit within the past couple of years. Raced each year at Randwick Racecourse, one of the top tracks in the country, The Big Dance’s popularity continues to grow.

Won by Rustic Steel in 2022, The Big Dance found great success in its inaugural year on the Australian thoroughbred circuit with most of that thanks being attributed towards the eye-watering $2 million on offer for its first year. Now, The Big Dance is worth even more (if you can believe it). A staggering $3 million is on the line.

The running of The Big Dance definitely turned some heads due to its race time being just 30 minutes before the Melbourne Cup, held at Flemington Racecourse. However, Randwick Racecourse and Racing New South Wales did well to pull it off, as The Big Dance is back again for another year. 

To be eligible for The Big Dance, runners have to finish in the top two of one of the qualifying races that take place throughout the year. The qualifying races to keep an eye out for include:

• Goulburn Cup 
• Snake Gully Cup
• Taree Cup
• The Gong
• Mudgee Cup
• Armidale Cup
• Nowra Cup
• Moruya Cup
• Ballina Cup
• Bega Cup
• Albury Gold Cup
• Wellington Cup
• Muswellbrook Cup
• Orange Gold Cup
• Tamworth Cup
• Wagga Wagga Gold Cup
• Hawkesbury Cup
• Gosford Gold Cup
• Scone Cup
• Gunnedah Cup
• Narrandera Cup
• South Grafton Cup
• Coffs Harbour Cup
• Forbes Cup
• Murwillumbah Cup
• Wyong Cup
• Bathurst Cup
• Cameron Handicap
• Lismore Cup
• Dubbo Gold Cup
• Port Macquarie Cup
• Coonamble Cup
• Big Dance Wild Card

On this page dedicated to The Big Dance, we have every aspect covered. OnlyRacing.com.au will provide horse racing tips for the upcoming event, once the entire field is confirmed along with other important pieces of information like results, betting, form guide, odds and more. 

One of the things that makes The Big Dance so interesting is the prize money attached to it. With a recent upgrade, The Big Dance is now worth a mammoth $3 million. See how the prize money is split between the top finishers:

Free horse racing tips are the thing we do really well at OnlyRacing. So, if you’re on the hunt for some tips, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got tips for every Group 1 and key race on the Australian calendar, like The Big Dance, plus Randwick tips, so you’re never short of horse racing tips.

For The Big Dance in 2024, our experts haven’t gotten stuck into their tips just yet. They are waiting until all the runners are confirmed for the race before sharing their thoughts with the world. By holding off, they hope they can provide more accurate tips as more information, like each runner’s current form, will be available.

We know you love your horse racing tips, so we have left up the tips our expert put together for The Big Dance in 2023 just so you can see what you’re in store for when the 2024 tips are released. All The Big Dance tips are below:

The Big Dance Best Bet - Wicklow

The second ever The Big Dance is wide open as you will probably ever see. A lot of live chances in this one, but I’m going with Wicklow, who is one of the more favoured runners in the market, at odds of $5.50. Great first-up run over the track and distance should put Wicklow in good stead for this one.

Tommy Berry books the ride and the barrier is excellent. I think there’s only improvement to be seen in Wicklow, so let's hope he continues to improve and snags a win for us here. Don’t forget that he finished a narrow third to Bois D’Argent at Rosehill in Autumn (which was a Stakes race). So, more of that will do just fine.

The Big Dance Next Best - Iknowastar

Too short for me to put Iknowastar as my best bet for The Big Dance (which is why that honour goes to Wicklow). Iknowastar comes into this with some solid form but the quality of the field he has faced in the past is nothing like what he is going to face on Tuesday. That said, winning form is winning form.

His breeding suggests he should handle the distance, but so far has only had one win after five attempts. He also gets a good barrier, so if he can put enough distance between himself and the others in the early stages, he might be too good and hold them all out. He’ll give them something to chase, that’s for sure.

The Big Dance Best Roughie - Attractable

An open race means heaps of runners at double-digit odds and one such runner that I think is in with a shot of a top-three finish is Attractable. I loved watching his run in the Alan Brown a few weeks ago and if he can replicate that again here, he’ll be up to his eyeballs in this.

So, why the long odds (Attractable is currently listed at odds of $19). Well, I think it comes down to the trainer, Sara Ryan isn’t very well known. I think if Attractable was trained by someone like Chris Waller or Bjorn Baker, he would be in the single figures. Willing to take a chance.

Our experts are ready and waiting to crunch all the numbers for The Big Dance in 2024, so make sure you check back soon for their tips.

The Big Dance continues to get bigger and better each year. We see some of the best in the country battle it out to claim victory in a massive Sydney Spring Carnival race, as well as a monster payday. So, it is very important on these lucrative horse racing meets to choose the best possible available Australian bookmaker to place your racing bets. 

To assist you for The Big Dance, in addition to any other prized race day, we have included some recommendations of where to place your bets for the race. There is simply no substitute for our OnlyRacing bookmaker reviews page.

This page includes a comprehensive list of all the best betting apps that you can place Group 1 bets with. Also, if you’re looking for some value for money, it’s worth checking out our betting promotions page which includes some great deals going around by the biggest bookies, like PlayUp, Bet365 and Unibet.

It’s also worth your time to check out some of the new betting sites as well. New bookies can offer something a little different and they usually have some of the best apps going around. So, just because you haven’t heard of them, it doesn’t mean you should completely write them off.

There doesn’t need to be a debate between more established or new bookies, you can open an account with both of them. In fact, we think this is one of the best things you can do. Opening accounts with multiple betting sites means you can easily take advantage of better odds, different promotions and more. 

The Big Dance field is uniquely made up of runners who finish top two in one of the many qualifying races. There are more qualifying races than there are spots in the final field though, so just because a runner has finished top two in one of the qualifying races and is therefore eligible, it doesn’t mean they are 100% confirmed.

The field will be confirmed a few days out from the race, but if you want to get an idea of the runners who are more likely to be included, check out the runners who finished top two in any of the qualifying races that have already been run. You can find all the qualifying races listed above.

See though you’re already here, why don’t you take a look at the field that took part in The Big Dance back in 2023. All the details are listed in the table below:

A full field of 20 runners was confirmed for The Big Dance in 2023. On top of this, there were four emergencies listed as well, just in case there were any pre-race scratchings. There weren’t any scratchings in the end, so none of the four emergencies were able to book their spot in the official field.

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the field for any scratchings as they come out of the blue most of the time and there are several reasons why a runner would be scratched. While it’s never good to see a runner pulled from the race, it’s important to remember that if you’ve placed a bet on a horse that is scratched, you will get your stake back.

When it comes to the final field, another thing you should take note of is the barrier draw. The bigger the field, the bigger the influence of the barrier draw and another consideration is the track. A tight-turning track, for example, will ensure a bigger emphasis on the barrier draw. We’ve seen many races where the barrier draw has had a major influence on the result.

With a race like The Big Dance, it is difficult to put together a proper form guide as there are only a handful of races. The form guide is great for helping find different patterns that can point you in the direction of the next potential winner. At this stage, we don’t really have enough data to see patterns emerge.

However, it’s still a good idea to look into the limited data, as you never know what you may find. One of the areas you need to look into is the barrier draw. We will usually see a full field of 20 runners compete and the more runners, the more emphasis is placed on the barriers. 

An inside barrier could be beneficial here as the runner likely won’t have to do as much work at the beginning of the race. They aren’t won’t be stuck wide with no cover, unless something very unlikely happens. Some runners may be labouring at the end, so having an easy run in the beginning can pay dividends.

Another area of the form guide that should be noted is the race tempo and speed map. Remember, Randwick is a spacious track and there’s a long home straight, so race tempo is important. With the long straight, it can be more suitable for backmarkers, as they have more distance available to make ground before the finishing post.

As always, it’s a good idea to look into runners who have proven success at Randwick Racecourse over the 1,600m. It’s important to pay attention to those races that are of a higher quality as well. It will be difficult to line up form as the majority of the field will have different lead-up races.

Here’s some of the key statistics of the winners so far in The Big Dance:

• Attractable (2023) - 5YO horse, barrier 7, weight 59kg, starting price $12.
• Rustic Steel (2022) - 5YO gelding, barrier 7, weight 56.5kg, starting price $19.

Even though The Big Dance has only been around since 2022, we have already seen some of the best horses compete and win the race. The Big Dance horses have to prove themselves in a qualifying race before they can even consider taking part in this race.

Unlike some of the other Group One races on the calendar, we don’t have to make the tough decision of choosing which horses to feature in this section. We are going to feature them all and we look into their respective careers and biggest wins.

Rustic Steel - 2022

The inaugural winner of The Big Dance, Rustic Steel by 0.2L to Cisco Bay. The win in The Big Dance really helped his total career prize money and it is currently sitting at $1,976,990. Rustic Steel has only contested one Group 1 so far and he went unplaced. He has had success at Group 3 level though, with a record of 5:1-0-1.

Attractable - 2023

The 2023 winner of The Big Dance, Attractable jumped with odds of $19 and ended up winning the race by a margin of 1.3L. The gelding is yet to contest a Group 1 race, but he has a career record of 28:8-3-2 so far, which has helped him amass almost $3 million in prize money. He has finished second place in one Group 2 so far in his career.

The Big Dance odds are like the glue that holds everything together. The shorter the odds are for a market or runner, the more chance that particular bookie thinks that outcome will eventuate. For example, if a runner is listed at odds of $1.45 to win the race, the bookie thinks there is a major chance of that runner winning.

However, there isn’t a lot of value in betting on a $1.45 pop, for example, if you placed $10 on a $1.45 chance and it won, your return would be $14.50, so you would profit $4.50. On top of this, just because a runner has short odds, it doesn’t guarantee that the runner will win and we see longshots with odds over $10 get up all the time.

The closer we get to race day, the more horse racing markets will open up. So, if you’re looking at the markets now and can’t find a market you like, it’s best to wait until closer to race day. The first market that will open up with any bookie will be the Fixed Win/ Place market.

Take a look at what stage this market is in as well. If it is listed as “Before Noms” which is usually a few weeks or even months out from the event, we believe this is a good time to place your bets. Betting so far out from the event usually means you’ll find runners with higher odds than compared to if you placed your bets on the day of The Big Dance.

PlayUp’s market for The Big Dance isn’t live yet. We will list all the Fixed Win odds below as soon as they are live, so check back here again soon.

Although extremely short, the race history of The Big Dance feature, which started in 2022, is important to look at before diving headfirst into the upcoming feature race. Many would expect that Racing NSW would never schedule a race on the first Tuesday in November due to the Melbourne Cup being held on that day. 

However, when Racing NSW revealed that The Big Dance's debut event would take place at Randwick on the first Tuesday in November 2022, that presumption was completely blown out of the water and the Sydney Spring Carnival truly announced its presence with some seriously rich events supporting the already richest race in Australia, in The Everest.

Peter V'Landys, chairman of Racing New South Wales, has openly disputed that the Melbourne Cup, a 3,200m legendary race that draws competitors from all over the world, will be impacted by The Big Dance. Only time will tell if this rings true.

Instead, V’Landys has openly praised the system that seeks to create more inclusion for Country Cups held around rural New South Wales. No matter what you think about The Big Dance being run on the same day as the Melbourne Cup, there’s no doubt that the Sydney Spring Racing Carnival is now one of the biggest horse racing carnivals in the country.

We will continue to add to this section, as we’ve only had a handful of editions of The Big Dance, the history isn’t too long. The first winner of The Big Dance was Rustic Steel in 2022, who won by just 0.2L. Attractable won The Big Dance in 2023 by a bigger margin, 1.3L to be exact.

Want to know who was victorious in the latest edition of The Big Dance? Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place. We’ve got all the results detailed you’ve been looking for and will update this section after the race each year, so you’re always in the know. We have information on the finishing order of every runner plus a full race replay.

In 2023, The Big Dance was won by Attractable, who was a $19 chance just before the jump. Attractable finished 1.3L in front of Cepheus, who was the pre-race favourite, ridden by Nash Rawiller. Attractable was second for a reasonable amount of the race but finished first where it counted.

Wrapping up the final minor placing was Super Helpful, who was 2.8L off the page. In a race with such a large field, it’s understandable that we saw a margin of 13.78L split the entire field and in 2023, The Big Dance was run in a time of 1:34.49.

All The Big Dance results can be found below:

A picture tells a thousand words, but what about a video? We’ve found the full race replay of The Big Dance, so you can feast your eyes: 

The Big Dance hasn’t been around for very long, so there’s only a handful of winners who have graced the honour roll so far. All The Big Dance winners are listed below:

Before you go, we’ve put together one last section for you. The Big Dance FAQs section covers all the most common questions people have about this race. So, if you’ve got any more questions, this is the place to be.