Corey Brown rides Shocking winning the 2009 Melbourne Cup during the 2009 Emirates Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington. Slattery Images
I don’t get the Melbourne Cup. Or what’s become at least. I appreciate it as a sporting contest – something that has been long debated – with a storied history intrinsically linked to Australian culture. But what is it really about?
I’m not condemning the event. Anything that has survived since 1861 must be doing something right, certainly with a wide appeal strong enough to survive and prosper for 148 years.
But are we really a nation of horse racing lovers? Why does the sport vanish out of sight for the rest of the year if that’s the case? Or is it just one of those things that is ingrained in our consciousness, so much so that despite our antipathy for racing we get on the bandwagon?
Probably. And doesn’t that bandwagon sure fill up each November.
But there is juxtaposition here.
On Channel 7’s coverage of the big race, stories and interviews outlining the long and storied history of the Melbourne Cup, and its importance to Australia’s sporting culture, were side by side with stories from the likes of Fifi Box analysing the fashions of the day, declaring, “no one really cares about the horses anyway.”
And therein lies the contradiction that the Melbourne Cup has become.
It has been hijacked, for want of a better word.
Anthony Sharwood, writing on the Punch says, “The spring racing carnival has been hijacked by fashonistas. And a motley assortment of B-listers, C-listers, gibberers, attention-seekers, hangers-on, creeps, drunks, wankers and wannabes.”
The irony is horse racing probably needs these leeches. It’s what equates to corporate dollars that helps fund the whole thing, not to mention getting the celebrity loving media onboard.
I sometimes feel sorry for the true horse racing fans, and those who work within the industry, who have their day hijacked by the celebrity media-fuelled circus that seems to have pervaded all parts of our society.
How embarrassing it must be for them to see some C-grade celebrity tell Australia their tip for the race is the horse called Daffodil because that is one of their favourite flowers.
This doesn’t seem to happen regularly in other sports.
I don’t see such celebrities appearing on AFL telecasts declaring Essendon as their tip because red and black are their favourite colours.
It is something that I can relate to, as a motorsport fan that works within the industry, and have grown tired of.
At one race, I walked into the paddock, leaving behind fans that would have given anything to follow me in to catch a glimpse of their heroes, to be greeted by an Australian sporting great from another sport, who shall remain nameless, telling their partner, “Can we f**king go home now?”
It’s a shame really.
It seems sport and popular culture make awkward but necessary bedfellows.
But in the case of the Melbourne Cup it seems ‘fashion’ and ‘celebrity’ are reducing the race to a sideshow. It should be the other way round, shouldn’t it?
Perhaps the Melbourne Cup festival appeals as a must attend event because it allows Joe and Jean Bloggs to experience the chance to dress up in a suit/frock and get a taste of an extravagant, excessive and ‘good’ lifestyle paraded to them in the media through ‘celebrity’. It’s unattainable, yet the Cup gives them that chance to at least taste it for a day.
Vanity at its best. Sad really, in my opinion.
For most, it’s a chance to wear a suit, frock, weird hat and get drunk and gamble, all on a Tuesday.
Most of these once a year punters wouldn’t be able to name five horses, let alone a jockey. But it’s okay. It doesn’t matter.
Nedahl Stelio, a fashionista also writing on the Punch, states, “Admittedly, not much horse racing is watched by women through the course of the day. I can’t actually remember the last time I saw a horse.”
She claims the racing diehards need to accept the fashion sideshow as part of a sport with an “unrivalled appeal to both men and women.”
It’s not the sport that is appealing it seems, but anyway she continues: “And I bet you won’t see as many good looking fillies cheering at the AFL (too bloody cold for one thing). No. It’s only the races where we flock in mildly skimpy outfit.”
Oh dear. Isn’t that a tad demeaning to claim that women – good looking fillies no less – would only be interested in sporting events where they can frock up?
The focus on equality amongst the sexes at the Melbourne Cup should be on Michelle Payne, the only female jockey in the race, competing on equal footing against men, not the latest Australian Idol reject spat out of the talentless factory and what they’re wearing.
It’s this contradiction that, sadly, scars the Melbourne Cup.
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