A Day at the Races

Joel's work sponsored two tables at the Western Health Day at the Races at Flemington Racecourse.  Lucky for us, a lot of his colleagues were on holiday, so they offered some tickets to us.  We gladly accepted!  Flemington is where the Melbourne Cup, "the race that shuts down a nation," is run.  This was a much more low-key event, and we hoped a happier one.  This year at the Melbourne Cup, two horses died, one from a heart attack and one had to be put down after breaking a leg.  This race day was much less tragic, except in my wallet.

Before the race, I was super worried about headwear.  The invitation said "strictly cocktail."  I know from looking at pictures that most women wear fascinators to the races.  American's don't usually do fascinators, so I was really flying blind as to what sort would work for the venue and for me.  The kids and I were in the city at a skatepark, so after we skated I dragged them to Myer, a department store, to find something to wear on my head.  They didn't have much of a selection, and every fascinator just looked ridiculous on me.  I settled on a nice big hat with a bow on it.

Almost as bad as me in a fascinator.

The day did not start auspiciously.  I was supposed to have a sitter coming at 11.  The sitter's mum rang me up at 10:30 to say the girl was very unwell and couldn't sit.  The mum was super nice, and offered to babysit for me in her daughter's place if I couldn't find anyone else.   Desperate, I called the home of a friend of Isaac's.  Isaac's friend has three older sisters.  I asked that mum if any of the girls would like to sit for the kids in, oh, 20 minutes.  While I'm doing this, I'm running around the house with hair done, makeup on, Spanx in place and freaking out.  The conversation went like this:

Sitter's Mum Vered:  Noga is working with her father today, but Hagar is home and might want to do it.
Me:  Great!
Vered:  Oh, but I'm not there to drive her to your house.
Me:  I will pick her up!
Vered:  Oh, but she's watching Yotam (Isaac's friend) today.
Me:  Yotam can come too!

It all ended up working beautifully, and we only left the house 45 minutes later than we planned.  Hagar was a great sitter  - very conscientious about sunscreen and got them all outside to the park to play before it hit 30 C.  Yotam and Isaac got a super-long playdate.  The only downside - the boys pretty much emptied the fridge so I had to shop again the next day.  If this is what they eat like when they're eight and nine, I can't wait until Isaac's a teenager and brings his friends over.

Back to the races:  Flemington Racecourse is gorgeous.  It's a nicely updated 2.1 km. track on the west side of the city.  It took us about 40 minutes to drive there.  It has about seven levels of different clubs you can go to in the grandstand, plus there's the grassy area near the track where everyone else goes.  We got to go to the tiptop of the grandstand.  It was pretty cool.

Main Gate

The Grandstand

Once we got to the top, I realized no one was wearing hats, only fascinators, so I took my hat off.  It was a little too big anyway; I was having difficulty seeing with it on.  About two-thirds of the women didn't wear any sort of headwear anyway, so I was okay. We were so late to the event, we forgot to take a picture of ourselves (sorry).

Just like any other trip to the races, there's the seedy underbelly of gambling and losing money.  Betting on a horse because you like the name is never a good idea.

Go Rich River, go!!

"And bringing up the rear, Rich River."  Awesome.

 The event was a sit-down lunch, silent auction and live auction to support the Sunshine Hospital.  They also had a fashion show for men and women.  The meal was really delicious - smoked chicken and rocket salad entree, salmon or lamb rump main, and a lime cheesecake with mango ice cream and macadamia crunch, and wine that just would not stop flowing (don't worry, we made it stop). 

Men's fashion show

Women's fashion show.  Sorry it's blurry.  Didn't want to seem creepy taking photos of strangers so I was trying to hurry. 

Two of my favorites to win.  They were robbed by a woman wearing all white, who I think didn't show nearly the creativity or fashion daring.  Wish I could wear a fascinator this gracefully.

While the fashion show was going on, I was picking my favorites.  I asked Joel which he liked best, and he said, "I think you should be up there with them.  You look better than all of them."  Sweet man!

The view of Melbourne and the track from the top of the Grandstand.

 Inside the Peak of the Grandstand

I made a few bets, but it wasn't a very lucky day.  The one bet I made that made money was for my dad, who, in commemoration of a fantastic Kentucky Derby bet he made back in the day, earned me $4.

Thanks for the hot tip, Dad!

 While it was nice to be sitting on the top of the world, it felt a little removed from the action.  I'd like to go back to the races and be on the ground to see the horses up close.  I'm sure the reason most of my bets were so poor was because I couldn't get a good look at the horses before they ran from way atop the grandstand. My dad and I used to go to Canterbury Downs in Shakopee and do a little betting after looking over the horses in the paddock, and we usually came out ahead.  Certainly did better than what I did today.   Still, a fun day overall; lunching with a bunch of pathologists is much more entertaining than one would think.