Living History

The Cup My First Year in Australia

I am not the gambling sort but when my family and I first came to Australia in the 80s, it was just before Melbourne Cup time, and all we heard was tips on who to bet on, and people talking about where to buy hats. Obviously coming from overseas, and having no interest in horse racing, we had never heard of the Melbourne Cup. However we saw that this was a huge Australian event and we wanted to get involved.

We got the racing forms in the newspaper and the whole family gathered round (my three children were all under ten at the time) and we picked our horses, the kids choosing by their favourite numbers, and myself and the wife making a show of reading up about the horses and their past races, even though we didn’t understand what half of that meant…

We put bets of $1 and .50c which I think was the smallest bet you could make and then we watched the race on the television. None of us won anything much, I think we made back $3.50 of $10 that we had bet, but it was lots of fun and the kids were very excited. My eldest daughter is a fan of horses and so she was extra pleased with getting to spend an entire day devoted to talking about them.

Since then we have always bet as a family on Melbourne Cup day, although we have never gone to watch the race itself. Friends often come over to have a barbecue on the day. I don’t think we have ever bet more than $20 on the races but it’s all in good fun anyway.

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