Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Melbourne Cup
Whoever would have guessed that there could be a holiday based on a 3 minute long event? That an entire country would turn to horse racing? That a whole city would dress up in order to watch an armful of equestrians blur past on a television screen? That an award would be granted for the woman with the finest millenery?
Well, this is what happens on Melbourne Cup day. The first tuesday of November, which this year fell on the first when North Americans were waking up to don their Halloween costumes, at precisely 3:10pm (more or less), Australia stops to watch the cup.
This Melbourne Cup day I attended a Melbourne Cup luncheon (there was probably one in every restaurant in the city), where I dined on smoked salmon lasangna and slightly overcooked chicken. My glass of champagne sat untouched. After lunch we stood up and watched on the TV as 15 or so horses tore around a track, mounted by jockeys who had starved themselves to minimize the weight their steed would have to carry. Thanks to the captions at the bottom of the screen, you could see which horse was leading until the last minute or so when the dash for the home stretch caused chaos. If you didn't blink, you would see that one horse clearly pulled into the lead at the end, but there were no more captions to assist those who couldn't recognize Makybe Diva's telltale colours. The cheering that ensued made it clear that this winner was well-liked, but it wasn't until I read the paper later on that I found this had in fact been a record-breaking 3rd successive Cup win for the diva.
This event is so much a part of Australia's culture that it is described on a government website, here: http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/melbournecup/
No, I didn't place any bets.
Well, this is what happens on Melbourne Cup day. The first tuesday of November, which this year fell on the first when North Americans were waking up to don their Halloween costumes, at precisely 3:10pm (more or less), Australia stops to watch the cup.
This Melbourne Cup day I attended a Melbourne Cup luncheon (there was probably one in every restaurant in the city), where I dined on smoked salmon lasangna and slightly overcooked chicken. My glass of champagne sat untouched. After lunch we stood up and watched on the TV as 15 or so horses tore around a track, mounted by jockeys who had starved themselves to minimize the weight their steed would have to carry. Thanks to the captions at the bottom of the screen, you could see which horse was leading until the last minute or so when the dash for the home stretch caused chaos. If you didn't blink, you would see that one horse clearly pulled into the lead at the end, but there were no more captions to assist those who couldn't recognize Makybe Diva's telltale colours. The cheering that ensued made it clear that this winner was well-liked, but it wasn't until I read the paper later on that I found this had in fact been a record-breaking 3rd successive Cup win for the diva.
This event is so much a part of Australia's culture that it is described on a government website, here: http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/melbournecup/
No, I didn't place any bets.
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