People flocked to the Bairnsdale Racing Club on Tuesday for a racing tradition, the annual Melbourne Cup Day fixture, which captivates the hardened punter and those that have a once-a-year flutter.
The weather was magnificent, with people, both men and women, coming out in their finery, with fashions on the field one of the most popular areas on track.
This year’s event attracted a crowd of more than 1300 patrons, which delighted club manager Scott Ingram.
“What an amazing day, awesome turn out, an increase on numbers from last year, great patronage, and it was good to look out over the track and see people having fun,” Mr Ingram said.
The club’s upstairs luncheon catered for 127 diners, while the developing kids’ zone was a busy area with parents bringing their children along to soak up the atmosphere of Australia’s biggest day of racing.
The petting zoo was a must check out exhibit, even for the adults.
The food vans were popular among the young and old attendees, Mr Ingram delighted with the younger demographic the meeting attracted.
“We managed to attract the 18-32-year-old crowd, which is the future of racing meetings and our target bracket,” he said.
“Looking forward to working hard at maintaining that for our March Cup Day meeting.”
At 3pm all eyes were on the big screen for the running of the 3200-metre feature from Flemington, the hush that came over the crowd during the running of the event evident also when $91 outsider Knight’s Choice saluted.
Any patrons who backed the winner admitted they backed it because the jockey was “that Irish guy off The Voice”, Robbie Dolan.
The local patron who picked up $720,000 in a mystery pick four from the
Bairnsdale RSL obviously wasn’t in attendance, though his story quickly resonated on track.
On the track six action-packed races were conducted, highlighted by victories to local training identities Danny Cunningham and Jackson Pallot.
The track raced in magnificent order, trainers from all over Victoria, surprised more meetings aren’t held on the excellent surface.
