Picture a college football tailgating situation.
Now replace F150s and RVs with Range Rovers and BMWs. Get rid of that Lonestar and Bud Light and bring in the bubbly. School colored attire is replaced with a nice frock, and baseball caps become outlandish hats or fascinators.
And that is a Melbourne Cup "car park".
The Spring Racing Carnival is a huge deal here in Melbourne. There are four (I think?) races throughout the week, with the biggest one being the Melbourne Cup. Everyone even gets the day off to attend or partake in other activities!
For someone who had never been to a horse race, the whole experience was quite interesting. Wearing a pretty dress and fascinator while sipping champagne seemed like a pretty good way to spend a day, in my opinion.
It also didn't hurt that I won some money on a couple races, which if you know me then you're aware what a big deal it is that I even entertained the idea of betting money. Side note: I feel very conflicted about the actual sport of horse racing, so I am choosing to focus on the champers, fashion, and classy day drinking situation.
The day started with a big breaky consisting of things that Australians are sadly not very familiar with: breakfast casserole and mimosas. I mean the casserole, fine, but mimosas?! For a country that loves to drink, they're severely lacking in that area.
After a crash course in how racing odds work, I placed about five bets throughout the day. My biggest win was picking a horse called Hijack Hussy to win a race, which she did. The ticket below won me a few bills for the horse getting third place in the big cup race.
We left the safety of our car park area to venture out to the actual track so I could see one of the races. It was basically a writhing mass of well dressed, drunken humanity.
But it was fun to see my winning horse prancing by!
Dolla dolla bills, y'all.
Needless to say, it was a lively rain ride back home. My chins had a great time.
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