The direction in which we are travelling around Australia was determined by the timing of the Melbourne Cup.
To mark the occasion we stayed a couple of nights in a Melbourne designer hotel complete with thoroughly impractical angular seats. However, the staff provide a pre-bedtime rub down with warm aromatic oils - altogether less shocking to the senses.
This is ‘the’ event of the year in Australia and we were lucky to have the help of Dale and Diane to get us tickets for the full days racing at Flemington.
There’s a real carnival atmosphere in Melbourne in the run up to the Cup. Here’s some pics of people getting ready for the parade the day before (we walked into all this by accident).
Followers of fashion might note that Sian produced a brand new outfit complete with mini-hat for the event. I think it was sneaked into the extra case that does nothing but cart her shoes from place to place around the world.
We arrived early to secure a table in our private tented area. It was not long before we got the day of to a flying start with a bottle of vintage champagne. Pity our early horse selections were not similarly ‘fleeing’. But more of that later.
Flemington is a first class race track with an amazing view of Melbourne city as the backdrop. On the day everyone gets togged up and the colour, weird outfits and general merriment of over 100,000 race-goers creates a fantastic atmosphere.
Early on the betting record was not so good with only a few modest place wins to keep the ship afloat. But come the eighth race my superior horse selecting skills shone through and ‘Annenkov’ stormed past the winning post. But this was not the end of my good fortune. When placing our bets at the tote window I had suffered a momentary lapse of memory (nothing to do with Boags stubbies) and bet twice on the same horse. Instead of one $5 each way ticket I had placed two producing a handsome $170 towards the entertainment fund.
Next stop Sydney.
