The Race that Stops a Nation

The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major annual thoroughbred horse race. Billed as 'the race that stops a nation', it is a race for horses aged three-years-old and up. The event has been held by the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse in the first week of November since 1861. It's a day when the nation stops whatever it's doing to listen to the race call, or watch the race on TV. Even those who don't usually bet, try their luck with a small wager or entry into a 'sweep' - a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse.

Sean was involved in a sweep at work and drew four horses, one of which didn't finish the race and the other three didn't make out much better.

The distance and the handicap ensure that the Melbourne Cup is a horse race in which the occasional punter has as good a chance of picking the winner as those who follow the form. It is a day when all Australians are considered to have an equal chance on the turf as well as on the lawn.

With waning crowd attendances in the 1960s, the Victoria Racing Club Committee held the first Fashions on the Field competition at Flemington in 1962 to encourage female racegoers back to the races. Now a national competition, state finalists from heats staged around the country during the Spring Racing season are flown to Melbourne, where the Victorian finalist is selected during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Since 1877, Cup Day has been a public holiday for Melbourne. For rural areas the day may or may not be a holiday. Many employees are given a choice whether to take Cup day off or have a day at some other time. Halls Gap Primary took the day off earlier in the year so there was school today. The kids were in attendance but it was more of a fun day structured around the Cup.


The morning for the Junior class was spent preparing lunch for the Senior class. They set tables and decorated them - it was quite a 'formal' affair. After lunch the kids held horse races and had a Fashions in the Field competition. Aiden impressed the judges and walked away with the junior age class.




As for me, after delivering pumpkin pie to the school (had to do something with the 20 lb or so of pumpkin), I headed down to the cricket club for a Melbourne Cup luncheon. The Mom's from the local playgroup put it on as yearly fund raiser. There were sweeps on the two races prior to the Cup and one for the Cup as well as a variety auction. They served a delicious lunch of chicken, beef and lamb with all the fixings. At 3:15, I snuck away to go get Aiden, Tyler and Joseph from school. Good thing the race is only a few minutes long or I would of missed it as it goes at 3:00. When we arrived back, Fashion in the field competition was taking place and they invited the kids to join in. A few of the older girls took part but Aiden was the only boy brave enough to join in. He was very cute strutting his stuff in front of the crowd. There were a few games for the kids afterwards and then we headed home.