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Published: January 5th 2007
Sunshine on Derby Day
Me, Sall and Jac up to no good in the Nursery!One could be forgiven for thinking Spring Racing was all about the horses! Any Melbournite knows the best time to be in town is for the carnival. Spray tans, hats and stunning head pieces (fascinators to the fashionistas) - it's a milliners heaven. The gardens at Flemington Racecourse are in full bloom and the fashions on the field (where a mere $350,000 is up for grabs!) is held by the heel-sinking green lawns.
Three races ... one week. Thankfully the PM sees the importance of this non-stop party week and we're given a public holiday for Melbourne Cup Day. Yep - a public holiday for a horse race!! Spring Racing Carnival is also the only week of the year I'll succomb to full scale snobbery - it's members all the way! A good place to be, when this year one unlucky guy got his ear lobe bitten off in an ugly brawl in general admission.
The Nursery and Rails members enclosures are split into over a thousand patches of grass - enough to rig up a small marquee, or large umbrella, chairs and a bar stocked with cases of champagne and beer. Invite 40 or so friends to your
In the Nursery, Derby Day
Me, Ange, Jac and Peelsie. My hat was so outrageously large no one in the general proximity got sunburnt that day! site and the party is complete! However, the members doesn't come anywhere near the exclusive Birdcage - an A List paradise filled with opulently designed marquees and elite guest lists to match. The French champagne flows freely in marquees hosted by large corporates with massive budgets who compete for the title of most lavish and popular marquee by flying over important guests like the Dubai royal family.
Our National gambling franchise the TAB rakes it in Cup Week. Each way bets, trifectas, quadrellas, quinellas - that's where it's all at! Public transport is packed in the mornings with the well dressed avidly studying the form guide.
The first race and argueably the best raceday of the week is the Derby. It's the first social event of the Spring and the beginning of Melbourne's party season. Apparently the day has always been about superior breeding (and that's not just the horses). There's no doubt it's a week-long champagne swilling fest - which typically comes undone somewhere between the porta-loos and tipsy, sunburnt race-goers tottering around holding their strappy heels. Derby this year was sensational - the sun was out and a record crowd of 130,000 turned up to see
Efficient win. My day didn't end there, however, and somewhere between Flemington Racetrack and home there was a Lara-Croft style fence-jumping incident - followed by a run in with the man of the moment - Rockstar Supernova's Toby Rand - at notoriously difficult to get into nightclub Eve.
Melbourne Cup is famed internationally as 'the race that stops the nation'. Unfortunately this year, it failed to turn on the good weather and the chilly 16 degrees conditions saw six scantily clad girls treated for hypothermia ... As you can see from the pictures - I wasn't one of them!! With such challenging conditions for racegoers - we were forced to keep warm with regular trips to the TAB and eventually someone turned on the BBQ which we crowded around to keep warm whilst watching Delta Blues bring home the Cup on the big screen! It's fair to say I didn't see a horse all day!! Jess & I eventually evacuated the course early to head to the comfortable surrounds of our local for a warming glass of red ...
The final hurrah of Cup Week was Stakes Day - promoted as family day and the last big race
day for the carnival weary. Sally from work had arranged a site on the Rails - a brilliant position for watching the races. A clear perspex screen was all that was between us, our umbrellas and champagne supplies as the horses thundered down the track beside us. Fortunately, the weather came good for the Stakes - though it was not a successful day for this unlucky punter. Up $1 at the end of the carnival ... guess I can't complain!
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Andy Horsman
Andrew Horsman
How The Other Half Live!
Looks like you had a great time - and you beat the bookies, nice one! Cheers, Andy