Melbourne Cup Day is a time of great festivity at the racecourse with champagne and beer in an egalitarian flow, and Cup Day costumes and hats are either of the height of fashion or of the height of weird.
For office workers this is the time to repair to the TV room to watch the Melbourne Cup race. There may be nibbles and drinks as well.
Those who make it to the TAB, or to any other Australian racecourse with a race meeting on the day, can watch the race on any number of monitors.
Reruns and postmortems
The Melbourne Cup race is over in a few minutes, but TV stations have reruns and postmortems throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the night.
Those who win in the office sweep, and at the local TAB, collect their winnings and may be prevailed upon to shout their mates a middy or two at the pub.
Melbourne Cup Day is a day of great excitement and hyperbole, and those who boast of big winnings on the Cup may be like those fishermen who talk of the size of the fish that got away.
Next page: Melbourne Cup Photo Gallery
