The Big Dance is another brainchild of Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys, implemented in 2022 to run on Melbourne Cup day as the Sydney feature, and designed to give the day more of a focus in Sydney, attracting more of the lucrative gambling dollars.

The Big Dance is the grand final event, coming after 29 lead-up races through NSW over the preceding 12 months. The first 28 of these are country cups, with the last event being a Wild Card where the first and second-placegetter are exempt from the ballot. The rest of the field is selected from the winners and second-placegetters of all the nominated country cups, and then ordered based on ratings at the time of the Big Dance.