Australians are gearing up for serious hoof and horse action today at Flemington in Melbourne. And thankfully Qantas flights are back in the skies jetting people to
Pic: AP.
the city for one of the nation’s biggest events.
The annual Melbourne Cup is a massive, hat and frock, Australian tradition that pubs, work places, businesses and the sports-going-public embrace with abandon on the first Tuesday in November every year at 3pm.
Even Mark Twain commented on this fascination with the event when he visited Melbourne in the 1890s.
And at the end of the great week the swarms secure lodgings and transportation for next year, then flock away to their remote homes and count their gains and losses, and order next year’s Cup-clothes, and then lie down and sleep two weeks, and get up sorry to reflect that a whole year must be put in somehow or other before they can be wholly happy again. The Melbourne Cup is the Australasian National Day. It would be difficult to overstate its importance. It overshadows all other holidays and specialized days of whatever sort in that congeries of colonies. Overshadows them? I might almost say it blots them out.’
It’s also not without its prize money and one of the richest races in the world therefore attracting a stellar lineup of thoroughbreds for the 3,200 metre event.
The race was first held in 1861 and has become such a feature that Melbourne has a public holiday for the Cup as do some parts of regional Victoria. There aren’t many cities in the world that have turned a horse race into a public holiday but the Cup has become completely embedded in the Melbourne psyche and indeed that of wider Australia. It has for many years been billed as “the race that stops the nation”.
For those in other states many workplaces allow a break and may even have Cup parties to watch and celebrate the race and lay a bet or two.
The most well known winner of the Melbourne Cup is of course Phar Lap; the New Zealand born horse that was brought to Australia as a colt. His hide is on display at the Melbourne Museum.
In recent weeks new Australian movie, The Cup, has come out – well timed for a pre-Melbourne Cup day release. The movie tells the true story of a young jockey that won the 2002 Cup. Here’s a preview.
The colloquialism “The race that stops the nation” actually developed thanks to Sydney born writer Vivienne McCredie’s poem in 1986. Here’s a snippet:
But once a year at Flemington
A horse race stops us all
And we hold our breaths and listen
To the commentator’s call
For never has there been a race
That holds such fascination
Than the race they run at Flemington,
The Race that stops the nationWe Aussies are a funny lot,
The things we hold so dear -
Like Rosewall, Hoad, the Opera House,
A glass of Fosters beer
Let’s not forget the Great White Shark,
And Lillee – in full flight,
The Wallabies, the Kangaroos,
The Harbour Bridge at Night,
Of course it’s something special
When we say the name of ‘DON’,
Our Bradman was the best they’ve seen;
His legend carries onOn a Tuesday in November,
The first one to be sure,
As the winner flashes past the post,
You’ll hear the thousands roar.
For never has there been a race
To catch imagination
Than the race that’s run at Flemington
The race that stops the nation!
