From agony in Angaston to Diggers’ donkey races in Afghanistan – MELBOURNE CUP: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Richard Sproull, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 08 Nov 2006: 4.
Show highlighting
Abstract
STRAPPERS, jockeys and trainers from David Hayes’s Lindsay Park Stud always retreat to the nearby Angaston pub, the Barossa Brauhaus, when their horses are running at the Spring Carnival’s big races.
Horses that have either stood or been trained at Lindsay Park include past champions Zabeel, Rory’s Jester, Jeune, At Talaq, St Covet, Kaapstad, Military Plume, Blevic and Devaraja.
[Kosuke Kawakami] said the successful run by Delta Blues and Pop Rock would encourage more Japanese trainers to enter their horses in the cup carnival. “I don’t know if there will be more jockeys coming out here but surely there will be more horses,” he said.
Full Text
STRAPPERS, jockeys and trainers from David Hayes’s Lindsay Park Stud always retreat to the nearby Angaston pub, the Barossa Brauhaus, when their horses are running at the Spring Carnival’s big races.
“Most of them drink here when they’ve had a win, too,” said Julie Blenkiron, the hotel’s night manager.
More than 200 patrons packed the bar of the 155-year-old pub in the heart of the Barossa Valley to watch the Melbourne Cup yesterday where Hayes’s Tawqeet and Short Pause were running.
Lindsay Park, the stud established by his late father Colin in 1965, is just a kilometre down the road.
Horses that have either stood or been trained at Lindsay Park include past champions Zabeel, Rory’s Jester, Jeune, At Talaq, St Covet, Kaapstad, Military Plume, Blevic and Devaraja.
But as Hayes’s horses began to fall back in the field the pub went pretty quiet.
By the time the horses hit the winning post the only barracking to be heard was by Kosuke Kawakami, a Japanese jumps jockey who is working at the stud.
“It’s such a great horse,” Kawakami said of Japanese horse and cup winner Delta Blues.
“I’m not allowed to bet on horses because I’m a jockey but that doesn’t mean I can’t cheer them on,” he said.
Australia has few jockeys of Japanese origin and Kawakami said the skills he had picked up at Lindsay Park would one day equip him to take on the top jockeys in the Japanese racing circuit.
Kawakami said the successful run by Delta Blues and Pop Rock would encourage more Japanese trainers to enter their horses in the cup carnival. “I don’t know if there will be more jockeys coming out here but surely there will be more horses,” he said.
Melbourne Cup fever was alive and well in Sydney, where work throughout the city came to a halt as crowds packed into pubs and hotels in a bid to gain a vantage point ahead of the race.
And many didn’t bother returning to work, with drunken groups spilling out on to the streets well into the evening.
Many dressed for the occasion, with everyday officewear replaced with fancy ties and frilly frocks. In the middle of the city, a special TAB marquee was set up at Martin Place to cope with the flourish of once-a-year punters.
Esther Raudonat enjoyed herself with champagne and a picnic in the heart of the city. She said Cup day should be a public holiday for the whole country, not just in Victoria. “Is anybody working anyway?” she asked.
Not to be outdone by the southern states, in Queensland 1500 punters packed the Gympie Turf Club for their annual Melbourne Cup camel races.
The day involved six races each with six camels. Club president Spencer Slatter said while the Melbourne Cup stopped the nation, the camel race stopped Gympie. “It’s our biggest day of the year,” he said.
Celebrations spread as far as Afghanistan, where Diggers held a donkey race at the Australian base in southern Afghanistan.
Six donkeys did one lap of the ring road inside the base. The winner was named Courage.