Dunkeld Country Cup

A few weekends ago, we went to the Dunkeld Country Cup horse races. It was less crowded than the Tatts Cox Plate we went to back in October, and a little more laid back in that we could get right up to the fence and see the horses run right by. Thanks to Alena for loaning me her fun hat/fascinator!

Nigel and Zack placing bets.

We went with our friends Adam and Emily (who had Colorado friends visiting), Nigel and Kristy, and Todd and Alena. Everyone brought food, so we had a nice picnic to enjoy between races. Zack and I would usually place $5 bets on each race. As usual, we won some and lost some-nothing too major in either direction.

Alena organized us getting an "umbrella package," so we had a table and seats reserved for us to use all day. It was nice to have a place to set our stuff and relax and eat.

Depending on the length of the race, sometimes they started right in front of the audience. In this particular one, a horse got pretty rowdy in the starting gate and the jockey fell off and hurt her wrist. She and the horse had to drop out of the race.

It was a beautiful Saturday in a very pretty setting, and we had a great time at this country race. Along with Todd and Alena, we spent the night in the nearby Grampians National Park, camping and then rock climbing the next day. But I'll leave that for my next post!

Nigel, Kristy, Scott, Cierra, Emily, Adam, Alena, Todd, me, and Zack

Other Things We Saw

Okay, I promise this is the last post about our Yellow Water Cruise in Kakadu. There's so much more to tell about our trip, and I need to get on to those other posts! But I couldn't help myself when I looked through my pictures and remembered some of the other beautiful sights we witnessed. So here's a taste of the non-crocodile and non-bird sights from that evening.

The lotus lilies were like huge bowls.

And those combined with the lily pads reminded me of a Monet painting.

We saw a tree snake and some strange tree fruit.

And there were awesome landscapes and beautiful wild horses.

This video will give you a taste of the peaceful cruise.

Going at sunset was probably the best decision. The lighting was amazing, especially reflected off Yellow Water Billabong. If you ever find yourself in the Northern Territory, I'd recommend the Yellow Water Cruise at the top of your must-do list! 

Melbourne Cup Recap

Well, we're back from the Northern Territory. It was awesome, and I will have lots of blog posts to come about seeing crocodiles, swimming under waterfalls, hiking and camping and canoeing, etc. In the meanwhile, I'm just trying to catch up on laundry, e-mails, bills, grocery shopping...not to mention narrowing down the 900 pictures we took over the long weekend!

While I work on getting up posts about our trip, I'll leave you with a short one about the Melbourne Cup, which was held on Tuesday. That meant that department stores like Myer and David Jones have been filled with displays like this for several weeks. It's a holiday that is just as much about the fashion as it is about the horse racing. Tuesday is a public holiday in Melbourne, and I'm guessing that a lot of people do what we did and make a long weekend out of it.

We were actually able to catch the race at a pub outside of Litchfield National Park. There were a couple of older ladies there dressed up with fascinators, but most people looked like locals on a late lunch break or tourists like us. I enjoyed a barramundi burger, chips (fries), and a mango-passionfruit flavored cider while barracking for my favorite horse (so Australian!).

My $3 bet was basically worthless. Americain (a horse we saw at the Tatts Cox Plate last year) was favored to win but didn't even place. Unexpectedly, Green Moon took first place. Zack had placed a $5 bet on Green Moon at this year's Tatts Cox Plate, but he didn't place at that race. I guess the horse was saving up his energy to win the Melbourne Cup. And I guess we're not good at this betting thing!






Anyway, lots more to come about our trip. And an interesting side note about the US election...Australia had full coverage of the results all afternoon on one of its main television channels. How many of you Americans could even name Australia's Prime Minister? It's interesting how much other countries know and care about US politics (and music, and movies, and basically everything).

Tatts Cox Plate Take Two

Last year, we went to the Tatts Cox Plate with some friends. You can read (or reread) that post here. We went again this year (yesterday) and had another good time. I wore the dress I had worn to my bridal shower way back in 2008, spruced up with some blue shoes and a blue fascinator. Zack looked dapper in his snazzy gray suit with his skinny tie.

We started the day with a champagne brunch at our friend Kelly and Nick's house. It was actually Kelly's birthday, so several of her friends from Perth had flown in for the weekend's festivities. Check out how they dressed their dog for the occasion!

The weather was pretty nice when we first got to Moonee Valley Racecourse. The sun only came out for a few minutes here and there, and it got chillier throughout the day, but we were just happy to not have any rain (as was predicted earlier in the week). Unfortunately, the cold wind meant that many pretty dresses were covered up with coats!

This guy was standing out front when we first arrived (I'm not sure what the point was-a mascot of sorts?). He let me hold the whip for this picture-ha.

Like last year, Zack and I put down $5 bets on each race just to make it more interesting. I always picked mine based on the horse's name I liked best...Super Cool, More Joyous, Crack A Roadie, I Get Around, Rangirangdoo, etc. Zack bet based on the odds and what some other guys around us were doing. We did decently well between us, and we probably ended up about even for the day. Our biggest win was around $50! Here I am posing with one of our winning bet slips.

The main race of the day (there were eight races total) is the second to last one, and it's the actual Tatts Cox Plate race. The plate is pictured to the left, along with a lady who had a ridiculous fascinator with a plate on it! A New Zealand horse named Ocean Park won the race, along with three million dollars.

Though it was kind of a pain, I was glad I brought my good camera along to get some pictures. With the crowds, it was hard to see the horses as they whizzed by, but I was able to get a few shots like the one below when I went up near the fence.

It was kind of sad to leave at the end of the day and realize we'll probably never go to this race again. We're talking about going to a country race in November, but if that doesn't happen, it may be our last Spring Carnival race ever. Boo! I kind of like dressing up and wearing a fascinator; I might just have to bring mine back to the States and find some reason to wear it!

Nigel and Kristy pose with us for a picture.

Tatts Cox Plate

Spring in Melbourne is all about the Spring Racing Carnival, which means there are several horse races leading up to the "race that stops a nation," the Melbourne Cup. That's on Tuesday, November 1, and people in Victoria get the day off work. Anyway, one of the bigger races is the Tatts Cox Plate, and we went to see that on Saturday. It was held at the Moonee Valley Racing Club, which is in a suburb North of the city. The weather wasn't the greatest (cloudy and kind of chilly with some rain), but we still managed to have a good time.

There were races held every hour, so our routine would usually go something like this...

1. Have a drink and chat and wait around for the next race to start. This is Emily, Alena, and I (the American expat wives!) enjoying some champagne. Notice our outfits. Part of the fun of the races is getting dressed up and finding the perfect fascinator (the crazy things on our heads) to go with your attire.

2. Watch out the windows as the horses were paraded around on a little track below before the race. We would try to figure out which ones looked strong or ready to race. This horse is Black Caviar...more on her later.

3. Place a bet. We made little bets on almost every race. You could put $2.50 down on your horse to win and another $2.50 for him/her to place. We usually did these $5 win/place bets, so if our horse got 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, we could at least win something.

4. Hold onto our betting slips, check out how much we might win, and wait for the race to start. Here is one of our slips from a bet on Americain, a horse from the United States who won the Melbourne Cup last year and might win again this year.

5. Either head outside to watch the race or watch it inside on one of the big screens. There were about 40,000 people at the race, so it was pretty hard to see anything among the crowd. But it was fun to be in the middle of the action and cheer for your horse to win!

6. Collect our winnings. I'm not sure if we really came out ahead at the end of the day, but we probably came close to breaking even.

We went with a fun group; here are shots of the gals and the guys from our crew.

Kristy, Alena, me, Emily, Marian

Adam, Todd, Zack, Nick, Nigel

One of the highlights was seeing a horse named Black Caviar. With her fifteenth win on Saturday, she broke the previous record of fourteen consecutive wins set by the Australian legend Phar Lap. People are saying this undefeated horse is the best sprinter in the world and will go down in history. So it was cool to see her, bet on her, and see her win her race by a landslide. She was so favored to win that if the next best horse had won, we could have won over $80 with Zack's $2.50 bet (he did it just in case!).

So it was a good Saturday at the races, followed by a fun dinner in Chinatown. Thanks to Kristy and Nigel for organizing, and hopefully everyone back at home had a good Saturday despite the Notre Dame loss to USC!