Sunscreen and cold water were the must-have items at Randwick on a blazing hot Melbourne Cup day.

Crowd numbers at Sydney's famous racetrack were up slightly after a couple of quiet years with 25,073 braving the hot weather to head trackside.

The meeting is traditionally the Australian Jockey Club's (AJC's) second biggest of the year behind Derby day and in the past has attracted crowds of around 40,000.

But the club has been dogged by bad luck in recent springs with no racing on Cup day in 2007 due to equine influenza and wet and windy conditions last year restricting the crowd to a little over 22,000.

Temperatures climbed to 37 degrees on Tuesday and the AJC's acting chief executive Darren Pearce believed the heat affected crowd numbers.

"It's hard to estimate how many were kept away by the weather," Pearce said.

"In this extreme heat it can be more comfortable for some people to stay at home or go to a local pub or club where they are less exposed than an outdoor venue."

Despite some punters electing to stay indoors, Pearce believes the day was a success.

"To have a target of 25,000 and reach that is fantastic," Pearce said.

"Cup day here is gradually coming back from EI, this is a great step forward but we can still do better.

"Over the next couple of years with new facilities coming into line I think it's achievable that we can start getting those crowds of 40,000."

For the most part the crowd was well behaved.

"They've been very sensible, taking in a lot of water," Pearce said.

"We've had extra water stations and made a big effort monitoring behaviour, if people looked like they needed some water or needed a break from alcoholic drinks.

"There's been a bit of sunburn but apart from that no major incidents."

Punters consumed around 1,200 dozen oysters, 10,000 pies and 800kg of prawns and plenty of champagne, beer and wine - and of course water.

There was a minor scuffle on the members' lawn late in the day which resulted in a few umbrellas becoming airborne but security and police quickly had the matter under control.

On the track, jockey Tye Angland was stood down from riding halfway through the day due to heat stress.

"We also had a few horses suffering from it too, particularly early in the day," chief steward Ray Murrihy said.

"It got up to 37 degrees at one point and that led to some protocols, like shortening the parade time before a race, and things like that."