Went went to the Ponies.

from late september until late November, Spring Carnival occurs in Victoria, Australia.  during this time, there are horse races all over the city and in surrounding towns.

on the first Tuesday in November, everyone has off of work to go to the horse races.  yes, i'm serious.  since my work normally has a meeting during this week, we decided to go to the Melbourne Cup, not knowing if i would be here next year.

as i mentioned in a previous post, we went shopping for the right dress for me, as this is a pretty dressy event, and all of the women wear hats or fascinators (think Beatrice's headpiece at the royal wedding).  the track opens at 8.30am and races run from about 10am - 5pm.  it is like nothing i have ever seen.  there are women dressed to the nines, men in suits, and people swilling champagne at 9am (our party included).

Yep, this is the fancy dress...covered up by a sweater and scarf.
And, that's a feather from the huge bow on my head in Jeff's eye.

we had seats that were right across from the finish line, with a great view of the big screen TV (for the really close finishes) and a great view of the city.

our view of the finish line

as you probably heard, the finish of the Cup race was close.  they called the winner by 1mm.  1mm.  i don't think they really have a clue who won.

I got yelled at in Argentina for taking pictures at a horse race,
but not in Melbourne!  Lap 1 of the Melbourne Cup.

during the day there are about 10 races, with THE race being run around 3pm.  think about how risky that is...people enter the track around 9am...then start to gamble and drink...then THE race isn't run until 3pm.  i'll let you determine what everyone at the track looks like by 3pm.  it was awesome people watching.

Jeff was a big weeeennner!

it was a really fun day, we bet on every race, lost a bit of money, and had a few laughs.  definitely something we would do again.

unfortunately, all of these tickets were not winners.