Here in Melbourne it is the first Tuesday in November and that means normal life has ground to a halt. Melbourne Cup day is upon us.
This iconic horse race is held on this Tuesday every year which sits conveniently with the great Australian tradition of using the slightest excuse to have a long weekend. Yesterday the Melbourne Cup parade was held in the city with tens of thousands of people lining the streets to see past winners and members of our racing royalty pass by. (Herald-Sun)
The Melbourne Cup, and the associated Spring Racing Carnival, is supposed to be about horse racing for but for many it is all about frocking up, having too much to drink and waking up in a place you don’t remember getting to. Possibly a garden bed.
I have done other posts about the Melbourne Cup if you are interested in finding out more.
The actual cup itself is famous in its own right- The Iconic Melbourne Cup.
The fashion- Melbourne Cup Fashion. 1888.
The history- Melbourne Cup Meeting 1862.
This is an illustration published in 1938 of the first Melbourne Cup, which was run in 1861. If only they knew what they were starting!
Morning Bulletin 1 Nov 1938 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55998956
Buried words and Bushwa. 
I’m on the fence re the melb cup. Rewind 8 years when we first went to Qld. Daylight savings had kicked in – for southern states – and there I ask in my kitchen doing whatever when the race comes on the radio. I look up, 2pm, and wonder when they started having it early…. Oops,
😀 Daylight savings is a killer sometimes, isn’t it? Responsible for all kinds of confusion! When we were away we passed through the half hour time change on the way to Broken Hill and sometime while we were away daylight savings time changed as well. You know what it is like when you are on holiday, accurate time doesn’t really matter so much, but on the way back we were supposed to change the clocks half an hour again so by the time we got home we had no idea what time it was!!
I love the Melbourne Cup from a historical perspective and I love an extra long weekend, but I really don’t care for horse racing, or betting, so I won’t even know who won until I watch the news tonight!
Jumping to the fashion news of the past is always tempting. So much fun to find that it was about men’s clothing! Fancy trousering…
Obviously metrosexuality is only a new word not a new state of mind! I laughed at the description of the ‘choice summer trousering’ that is ‘very pretty’. Not really designed for the stables, clearly the wearers are never expected to leave the betting ring 🙂
I agree it’s about all sorts of things now, debate of foreign horses, Charles & Camilla, Damien Oliver… oh and the race, but still a few “the one that got away” stories… my horse came second so I got a few $$$, my second choice horse that I didn’t back in the name of moderation, came first. The G.O. and his mate picked 1st, 2nd & 3rd in a boxed trifecta but got all fancy and went for a 4th place trifecta, and their 4th horse came 6th!
It isn’t a race for purists, that’s for sure! I noticed that there has been a big write-up in the English papers this morning about how feral we all are and that Charles and Camilla would be shocked if they had seen how the crowd was behaving.
(I saw a photo from the track of a picnic rug along the fence with a homemade “Damien Oliver Betting Ring” sign on a stick. 🙂 )
Too bad the G.O. didn’t have a big win on the trifecta, that would have been a nice bonus!
This is probably the first year we weren’t in a sweep so I didn’t even know the names of the horses this time. I have a bit of a thing about it at the moment, I am hating how much we are exposed to television advertising trying to get us to bet on everything, it seems to have become even worse in the last few months. I don’t have a problem with adults choosing to gamble but when it is on tv all the time it normalizes it for kids, I can see that we are training a generation to think that everyone bets on everything. 😦
On the news it said the TAB revenue from the cup was higher than ever and with the ability for people to place bets via hand held devices, they were taking 1600 bets per second at peak times… My friend got an Iphone specifically so she & her hubby could have the Sportsbet app for their Saturday arvo flutter on the horses. I hate gambling in any form and for no personal reasons, logically it’s just stupid. My $10 on the Melbourne Cup is a cultural thing… and I indulge the G.O in a couple of lottery tickets a year. I wonder if people are aware that the gambling means to their financial dreams is just govt & shareholder revenue. I hate all the gambling advts when I watch the footy – they should be banned just as cigarette advertising was. I had to jon Sportsbest to be in my work’s footy tipping comp… so wrong. You are doing the right thing by your kids… she says as she kicks her soap box away 😉
*steps up on empty box*
I’m with you, I don’t hate it for any reason other than everyone has better things to spend their money on.
When I was small I remember going to the TAB with dad on Cup Day and putting 50c on each of the horses the family had chosen. Betting was a special treat and not a thing that was done at any other time of year. The rest of the year the TAB seemed to be filled with lonely blokes, smoking like chimneys, who would have been better off spending their money on new clothes than the trots.
I agree that the gambling advertising should be treated like cigarette advertising, the people most influenced by advertising are usually the ones who have the least to spend, and the most to lose. I hate pokies too for the same reason. High rollers don’t use them, people spending the mortgage money do.
I know that adults are supposed to be able to make their own choices but if advertising didn’t work on the weak minded it wouldn’t be a mega million dollar business. We make an effort to point out to the kids the bad side of gambling because the tv keeps telling them that it is cool and you will win 😦 grrrr…
*steps off box* 😉