Place To Be - The party that stops a nation, Melbourne

Article by: Katie Falkiner, November 2005

Odds on the Favourite

Some figures suggest around 80-90% of Australians will have a bet on the Melbourne Cup. It's estimated that Australia-wide over $120,000,000.00 is wagered, in Victoria $46,000,000.00 is laid at betting shops alone. In 99% of cases a child in Melbourne will have it's first gambling experience betting on the Cup.

On Cup morning families pore over the newspaper formguide, debating the merits of particular horses and finding faults in others (or choosing by their favourite colours). When tips are collected, an adult is dispatched to the local betting shop, a ritual as familiar as presents on Christmas Day. (If your grandma can't get to a betting shop you call her and go and put her bets on for her.) On the Monday before Cup Day there's the office sweep and woe betide the wowser who doesn't take part.

The Egalitarian Handicap

The Melbourne Cup is the only top internationally respected flat race taking the form of a handicap, meaning that horses are given weight depending on their previous form. You don't have to be rich (or the Queen) to own a Cup winner; in the past few years school teachers, fruit sellers and, admittedly, the odd media mogul have come out on top.

Can Makybe Diva and the Tuna Fisherman Win Again?

The 2005 Melbourne Cup could prove to be legendary as champion mare Makybe Diva tries for her third Cup in a row, a feat managed by no horse in the history of the race. Can she win it? Many people say yes, as she's just won the Cox Plate - the other big race of the season - and is looking very fit. One of those people is Mark Read, Australia's biggest professional punter who laid plenty of money on a win four weeks ago. Five people who will be watching very carefully are the girls who work in the office of Makybe Diva's owner Tony Santic. The tuna fisherman named the horse after the girls (Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa) to thank them for being such good workers, a nice tribute indeed.

Novel Fashions at Flemington

Fashion is a serious affair over the Spring Carnival. Cup week alone keeps many a milliner in business. Last year women bought a record 43,470 hats, 30,199 pairs of shoes and 26,136 handbags. Men purchased 14,219 ties and 12,459 pairs of shoes. The surprise for 2004 was the amount spent on underwear. Ladies underwear sales rose 50% at Melbourne's major department stores, while men's underwear sales experienced a 65% pre-Cup rise.

In 1965 model Jean Shrimpton arrived at Cup Week, in a still very conservative Melbourne, wearing a short shift dress (four inches above the knee) and no stockings. 'People were just absolutely aghast', said Sally Chirnside, the first female Committee member at Flemington, 'I mean she might as well have been naked.' The mini-skirt flourish of the following summer was revolutionary.

While racewear imitates Ascot each year, there are perennial outfits worn to the Melbourne Cup seldom seen at other world-class racecourses. Racing writer Les Carlyon sums it up, 'I've been to dozens and dozens of Cups but I never cease to be shocked or amazed every year when you get near the course and suddenly you see a bloke who's gone to enormous lengths to dress himself up as the pope, and nearby is a bloke who's gone to enormous lengths to look like a gorilla and nearby is another fellow who's matched a beautiful tuxedo with a pair of shorts and Blundstone boots.' At least one group of friends come dressed as their favourite brand of beer...

Party Pies and Sausage Rolls

Where Wimbledon has Pimm's and strawberries and cream, the de rigueur Flemington feast involves champagne and party pies (mini meat pies) and sausage rolls. Over 200,000 party pies and sausage rolls are consumed and around 100,000 champagne corks popped at Flemington each year during the Spring Carnival.

Champagne and its 'Attendant Consequences'

In 1956 the Australian Prime Minister John Curtin witnessed what he described as women drinking large amounts of champagne and its 'attendant consequences'. He was so shocked that a law was introduced disallowing women in the members from access to alcohol at the races unless they were dining. The ban existed at Flemington until 1982, when women were once more allowed to move around the course as freely as the men.