source : the age
Melbourne Cup Week is first and foremost about the horses, but running a close second this year is British pop star Robbie Williams.
Williams, who is performing a handful of songs at Flemington on Tuesday before the Cup and then a full concert after the last race on the day, arrived in Melbourne on Friday.
“I’ve come from Mexico to Melbourne,” a wild looking Williams told his
social media followers.
“(I’ve travelled) from Mexico to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Sydney,
Sydney to Melbourne. I’ve had 20 minutes sleep in 32 hours.”
Hopefully, he gets some shut eye and kicks the jetlag before Tuesday.
In a sea of monochrome, there are a few colourful standouts around the track.
Darren Anquetil and Suryani Suerz unknowingly bucked the black and white dress code, splashing out on matching aubergine-hued outfits to wear for Suryani’s first ever race day experience.
“They can like it or leave it,” Darren said of their fashion faux pas.
Two Nick Ryan horses have been scratched from the Derby Day races on the order of Racing Victorian stewards.
Ryan had Doubt Time entered in the group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes while Anglais was to run in the group 2 Wakeful Stakes.
Stewards have yet to release their reason for the decision.
For groom-to-be Josh Parsons, of Bacchus Marsh, he was left in the dark about his attire for Derby Day today and his suit doesn’t exactly meet the black and white theme.
Parsons was blindfolded and buttoned into a hot pink suit plastered with his fiancée Cristin Brincat’s face this morning.
“I had no idea, but I feel great and you’ve got to own it and get into being the only bloke in pink,” he said.
The Roaring Sun has won the Carbine Club Stakes to open the day at Flemington.
At least some sun has shined on Flemington today.
Roaring Sun powered home in the final stages bursting through the field ahead of Unhinged.
An early winner for trainer Chris Waller and jockey Damien Lane.
Keep a watch on our updating picture gallery with all the colour and action from Derby Day.
If you think you’ve gained full access to Flemington’s most exclusive enclosure, the Birdcage, it might well turn out you haven’t.
Despite a push to give regular, paying punters access to the luxury marquees, a sneak peek ahead of Derby Day unveiled a catch.
Many of the big brands, including Crown, Don Julio, Lexus, Tabcorp and Mumm, all unveiled hidden rooms that require a special invitation or tap on the shoulder to enter.
Crown is selling tickets to the lower levels of its marquee for $2195 each – a first-time move that Victoria Racing Club chief executive Kylie Rogers said would help ensure the Melbourne Cup carnival was “as accessible as possible”.
But splashing the cash won’t buy you access to the top level of the marquee, which is reserved for VIPs and high rollers, who will feast on caviar and blow-torched sushi. There is also a hidden bar behind a secret door where icy cold gimlets will be dispensed via a vodka luge.
Flemington track manager Liam O’Keeffe is confident the track will handle today’s rain and he has explained that a plan is in place should there be any lightning which pauses racing.
If there is lightning in the vicinity of Flemington, O’Keeffe told Nine’s broadcast that a 30-minute delay could be put on racing.
If that happens, he said the race schedule can be compressed and time between races cut down to make sure all races are completed.
The shape of the Melbourne Cup changed dramatically on Saturday morning after Irish import and expected pace-maker Defiantly failed a vet test.
The Joseph O’Brien stayer has set European racing alight in the past six months by adopting daring catch-me-if-you can tactics and was expected to turn Tuesday’s 3200m race at Flemington into a gruelling test of stamina that would suit the Europeans.
The five-year-old gelding presented with sensitivity in a hind foot when first inspected at Werribee earlier this week, but the O’Brien stable was quietly hopeful it would come good by the follow-up veterinary examinations today.
Just how thin can you spread the Daicos brand in the Flemington Birdcage?
Brownlow Medal winner Nick and his brother Josh are in high demand among the corporate marquees on Derby Day, as is Josh’s fiancée, model and influencer Annalise Dalins.
In what looked like a divide and conquer strategy in the corporate commitment space, when the media heads up dropped in Saturday morning noting where celebrities would be in the Birdcage, Nick Daicos was listed as a guest of Lexus, Josh Daicos was promoted as a guest of Don Julio and Annalise Dalins was announced as a guest of Crown with Josh and Nick’s sister Maddie as her guest.
One family, three marquees – not a bad effort.
