As luck (or last minute poor planning!) would have it, we managed to perfectly miss several major sporting events in Melbourne during our time there. We arrived in Melbourne just after the Grand Final, which is the championship game for AFL (think Super Bowl for Australian rules football), and we left the day before the Melbourne Cup, which is a huge horseracing event.
We realized it was a big deal in Melbourne, but didn’t realize it was that big outside of Melbourne. However, much like the Kentucky Derby in the US, it was HUGE and Sydney was also full of excitement for the big day. We hopped on our first ferry over to Sydney from Manly Beach the morning of the race and everyone was dressed in their best and the ladies were wearing some fabulous hats! And, of course, everyone was drinking beer from the ferry bar at 10 in the morning (bravo, Aussie, bravo). 😉
We found a great spot to get in on some of the horse racing action at The Glenmore in Sydney. A young guy at a table next to us got a kick out of Matt explaining the ins and outs of betting on horses to Jack and started chatting with us. It was done a little differently in Australia, so he explained some of the intricacies to us. It’s completely appropriate to teach your 7-year old the ins and outs of betting on horses, right? Maybe don’t answer that one…
We let Jack pick a horse and we put a little money on it. As a shout out to our former stomping grounds, we picked Rose of Virginia and wouldn’t you know it, she came in dead last! It was a lot of fun just to be part of the excitement, though. Folks seems to take their celebrating VERY seriously here, which I can certainly get behind. Right down to the mobile betting stations located around the city, they had all their bases covered!
The Detour Diary 