Country Races - Kyneton

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Today was another race day but one with a difference, we headed off to the Victorian country town of Kyneton (about an hour from Melbourne) for their big Country Cup meeting. The course was a very pretty one, although the track was extremely tight and turning which will make punting interesting! It was great because everything was really relaxed and we were able to get up close with horses/jockeys etc. It was a nice change from the huge crowds, hustle and bustle of the last few days.

Unfortunately we had a bit of an incident with a guy Tom who was on the tour. As stated earlier Jeanette won a $50 bet on the winner of the Melbourne Cup returning $600. Sporting Tours had paid the money into our account and all was good - or so we thought! Tom who was at our table at the function where Jeanette won the bet approached us and said it wasn't Jeanette's bet it was a bet for the table and we should share the winnings with the table (this was totally untrue). Sporting Tours gave a $50 bet to an individual person on tour for each of the 24 runners - Sporting Tours had already confirmed that was the case. However Tom was on a mission and said because we hadn't shared the bet with the table (10 people so they would have got $60 each!) we were being ostracized by the group and were we aware of the coldness towards us every time we entered a room! Jeanette was understandably really upset and ended up in tears. I went straight to Cal from Sporting Tours who was with us at the races and absolutely blew my stack. Told him it was totally unacceptable for anything like this to happen and we wanted nothing to do with the tour from now on. I actually told him he could stick his tour up his ass - but then had to say but we still need a ride back to Melbourne on the bus - we were in the middle of nowhere!

Tom was completely wrong but was actively working to have us 'sent to Coventry' by the rest of the tour party, totally weird and something we have never ever experienced. As it happened he managed to get a bit of support (mostly from other people who were on the table) but there were heaps of great people on the tour so it never really impacted us. Credit to Cal and Sporting Tours they handled it well. The next morning I went and apologised to him for my outburst and said all we wanted for today (the last day of the tour) was to enjoy Oaks Day at Flemington without being hassled by anyone. He assured me things had been dealt with and that would be the case-and it was. The behavior by Tom and a couple of others was pathetic but we'd be lying if we didn't say it put a bit of a dampener on the tour for us.

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Photos

Kyneton Races
As nice relaxing day of racing in the Victorian countryside

Country Course
Kyneton - a lovely country race course, heaps of room for people to spread out, enjoy a picnic etc.

Up Close
One of the great things about country racing is you can get up really close to everything including jockeys and horses.