Sev and Eve Go Down Under!: Caulfield Cup

We went to the Caulfield Cup horse races this weekend. Horse racing is a big part of the culture in Australia, and in many other commonwealth countries as well, as it originates in Great Britain.

One of Sev's coworkers is a member at the racing club so we got to hang out in the members area which has a wonderful view of the race course and is much less crowded than the general admission area.

It was very hot that day and we were worried we'd melt in the heat but we had this table in the shade and fortunately there was a nice wind all day that kept us cool.

There's a dress code at the races - men have to wear tailored pants, closed shoes, a collared shirt, and a jacket or tie (except in the summer months, they don't have to wear the jacket or tie) and ladies just have to look nice with no bare midriff, but all of the women wear hats - another influence of British culture here.

As we suspected, horse races are generally an excuse to dress up and drink all day! There were lots of young people dressed up like these folks.

As usual, Sev looked very handsome and the ladies said he looked like a movie star!

These are some of the people in our group, Sev's coworkers and their wives. Betting is a very popular thing to do at the races as well, as all gambling is legal here. We got a crash course in horse betting from one of Sev's colleagues and promptly lost the $20 that we bet.

I was most interested in the horses, being such an animal lover. These are the stables where they hang out.

There were various horses walking around in the stable area, maybe warming up or cooling down. I was surprised how tall the horses were. Of course they were strong and muscular but they had the longest legs too!

Caulfield Cup is a big race in Melbourne, and they play the races in Melbourne as well as races in Sydney on the big screen here and there are several live race as well. We were right at the finish line, and this is the end of the first race we saw.

After the race, the horses come back and show off to the crowd.

The horses really seemed to love the races!

After showing off, the 5 top finishers stand in these stalls for a minute and their owners and trainers come to congratulate them. I thought we could enter this area and tried to go see the horses, but was informed that it's for owners only!

I spent much of the day admiring the horses!

Usually there was a big crowd around the winner, like this one!

This was a photo finish race because it was so close and the winner ended up being an underdog named Take It At Face Value (they have some funny names for the horses). One of the women in our group bet $10 on this horse and she won $365! I turned off the sound because I'm screaming like a valley girl in the video, but the horses' hooves practically shake the earth as they run by!

Photo op with a horse!

Here's the winner of the race. It was a warm day and the horses were breathing so hard after the races and were very sweaty! The races range from 1km to 2.4km and they run it in just a couple minutes!

Self portrait while watching a race.

We were told that we have to bet at least once so we went to place a bet with the bookies, as they're called here, but as you can see the system is very complicated and indecipherable for an outsider so we had to go back to our group and get some help.

There were lots of people like these little old ladies studying their race books and betting on their horses all day! It was so funny to see as outsiders, plus it seemed odd that it was done openly and totally legal! Sev even saw these ladies with a little hand radio, perhaps to share results with friends in other areas! Lots of people take the betting very seriously!