MELBOURNE CUP DAY
Next week the race “that stops a nation” the Melbourne Cup will be run. Australians love their leisure and sport and one race every year stops the entire nation . Even if they are not actually present Aussies are glued to their television screens or radios to listen to the race. Australians of every age and from every walk of life , follow their chosen horse (often in a work place sweep) running in the Cup . Melbourne Cup Day is fixed for the first Tuesday in November .
The race is recognised as one of the World ‘s greatest handicap races. It is held at Flemington , a suburb of Melbourne .The first Cup was run in 1861 . There were 17 starters and , paradoxically , the prize – apart from the money (170 pounds ) – was not a cup, but a hand – beaten gold watch .
History tells us that Archer, the winning horse , walked to Melbourne from Nowra, New South Wales, a distance of 500 miles (800km)
As a Melbourne girl born and bred, I adore the Melbourne Cup and enjoyed many hours gazing up at “Phar Lap ” who is preserved and standing in a glass case in the Melbourne Museum. He is considered by racing experts to be second only to the great “Carbine” and a measuring – stick for all Australian racing performances. Nobody would doubt that he was one of the most extraordinary thoroughbreds ever seen on the Australian turf.
To celebrate the Melbourne Cup I’m sharing Willa Fraysers beautiful painting, ‘Turfs Up’
www.willafrayserstudio.com
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