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Chapter Eight

Melbourne Cup Day 2015

3am

Maddie Raymond stirs and rises from her warm bed. She has hardly slept. It is Melbourne Cup Day and she is one of those whose job it is to get Prince Of Penzance to Flemington.

4am

Prince Of Penzance is unfazed as those around him prepare for the three-hour trip.

8am

Bake Bakery in Adelaide serves its first bunch of themed cupcakes, horse faces staring up at hungry sweet tooths. ‘They sold out really fast,’ said head baker Jason McDonald. ‘People love them, they are guaranteed to bring a smile to their faces.’

8.25am

Eager racegoers stand patiently at Flemington’s majestic gates awaiting the 8.30am opening time. Minutes later the first of 101,015 Cup Day enthusiasts charge through.

8.30am

The first race day trains depart from Flinders Street and Southern Cross stations. At their peak they are running every six or seven minutes, and over the course of the day 308 trips transport over 48,000 racegoers. At about the same time a float leaves Warrnambool. Aboard is Maddie Raymond and her co-workers Rachel Hernan, Jessica Dudley, Brittany Kirkman and Kellie Mitchell. As well as a security guard. And Prince Of Penzance.

8.35am

Nobody at the Warrnambool stable wants to miss out on the big day so Jarrod McLean offers to drive a car full of staff to Flemington.

9am

It is the era of the selfie, and as racegoers swarm into Flemington they take photos of themselves in front of every landmark … the finishing line, the statues of Melbourne Cup legends Phar Lap and Makybe Diva, of Bart Cummings and Roy Higgins.

10.30am

Brunch is served in the birdcage marquees hosting celebrities and dignitaries. Sponsors lay it on; caviar and champagne, the wealthy and beautiful pose for photographers. The Cup Day’s traditional yellow rose is worn by many.

10.40am

The first of ten races is run and won, two-year-old Concealer winning the Group Three Emirates Airline Plate at debut. The Hong Kong based Zac Purton is aboard: ‘It is always great to win a race on Cup Day. You know there are plenty of people watching, it’s a rewarding feeling.’

11.20am

The second race is won by Zarzali, whose jockey Glen Boss won three consecutive Melbourne Cups aboard the great mare Makybe Diva. The trainer is Bart Cummings’ grandson James … Bart would’ve been proud.

11.48am

The VRC’s Melbourne Cup Tour Manager, Joe McGrath, poses with the Cup trophy as it makes its way to the mounting yard, where it is on display from noon.

11.59am

Prince Of Penzance’s part-owner Sam Brown, member of the Men In Hats Syndicate, does an interview from the track with 2GB radio — ‘A bit of fun and banter.’ He can tell the broadcaster doesn’t really give his horse a chance.

12pm

The J. B. Cummings AM Tribute Plate is the third race, won by De Little Engine, whose dam Arapaho Miss enjoyed Cup week success eight years previously, winning the VRC Oaks. Falamonte, Michelle Payne’s first of two rides for the day, finishes fifteenth of the eighteen runners. She has plenty of time to put on her Cup colours, coincidentally the purple, white and green of the suffragette movement — they signify dignity, purity and hope. She shares the jockey room with the only other female jockey riding that day, Jackie Beriman. There is an overflow from the male room so there are also three overseas visitors: William Buick, Ryan Moore and

Gerald Mosse.

12.40pm

Race four is won by the promising four-year-old Malaguerra, whose seventh dam Rainbird won the 1945 Melbourne Cup.

1pm

Connie Brown places a Prince Of Penzance scarf around the Bart Cummings statue. For a photo, for luck. Surely Bart would’ve been cheering for Michelle. He had, after all, provided her with her first Melbourne Cup ride, Allez Wonder, in 2009.

1.20pm

Invincible Heart wins the fifth race, a 1000-metre dash down the straight. From Scone part-owner Warren Wruck cheers, to win a race on Melbourne Cup Day is to ‘tick one off the bucket list’.

1.30pm

Channel 7’s Neil Kearney interviews Michelle Payne, asking if she is nervous. ‘Not at all,’ she says. ‘I am excited to get out there and partner a horse I know really well.’

1.45pm

A crowd of several thousand are congregating in the city with Melbourne Cup Day action beamed from Flemington to Fed TV, at 5000-square metres Australia’s biggest fixed television screen. ‘This has become quite a tradition in recent years,’ says Matt Jones, Federation Square’s General Manager of Program and Events. ‘The day attracts an enthuiastic contingent of dedicated punters, many of whom dress up for the occasion, looking to experience the race in a novel atmosphere. We also have the advantage of being able to show off Cup Day to a wider audience of students and international tourists.’

1.55pm

Members of the Men In Hats Syndicate congregate outside the owners’ room at Flemington, plenty of happy snaps taken. Without consultation they have all turned up in the same coloured suits, but what really stands out is their Prince Of Penzance ties. ‘Sam said if we didn’t wear them we had to go home!’ laughs Mike Botting.

2pm

The Listed Lexus Hybrid Stakes is won in easy fashion by Don’t Doubt Mamma. Her fourth dam, Denise’s Joy, raced on this day in 1974, and a year later she won the VRC Oaks.

2.15pm

The Melbourne Cup horses are saddled up. Form analyst Peter Ellis waits patiently, and as he heads to the mounting yard with Darren Weir they discuss tactics.

2.18pm

Twenty-four horses primed for their biggest test stroll around the birdcage, their coats glistening. Some get a little on edge, but most take it in their stride — they are experienced stayers. Their trainers head to the mounting yard, including several who have won the big race before: Lee Freedman, David Hayes, Robert Hickmott and Gai Waterhouse. Gai’s husband is proud of her achievement, noting that ‘it is a very hard race to win; only two living New South Wales trainers have won it’. Les Bridge, back in 1987 with Kensei, is the other.

2.20pm

Anthony and James Cummings, son and grandson of a Melbourne Cup legend, hand over the 2015 Melbourne Cup to VRC Chairman Michael Burn, whose wide smile suggests he is just about the proudest man on course.

2.25pm

Twenty-four riders are presented to the crowd. They are born in eight different countries. Seven have already won the race, including Jim Cassidy. This is his last Melbourne Cup ride, with retirement beckoning. He takes off his Emirates hat and waves it to the crowd. For another, Damien Lane, this is a Cup debut. The rider of a roughie receives the most enthusiastic applause — Michelle Payne. Zac Purton rides the favourite Fame Game and is excited. ‘No other race worldwide stops a nation like the Melbourne Cup does. It’s always a special moment when you’re a part of something like this.’

2.35pm

One by one the Melbourne Cup horses enter the tunnel that leads to the mounting yard. The crowd’s noise does not break the thick walls, the only sound is the clip clop of hooves.

2.36pm

The horses emerge from under the ground, greeted by a sea of people. Every seat in the grandstand is taken, every viewing spot filled. Prince Of Penzance ‘looks the best he has ever looked’, notes owner Andrew Broadfoot.

2.45pm

Darren Lonsdale presses record on his phone, taping Michelle Payne’s final pre-race words. He leaves it on for the race.

2.46pm

The horses canter to the barriers.

2.55pm

They are at the gates. It is Paul Didham’s fourteenth Melbourne Cup as official starter. He concentrates on the job at hand but admits to some pre-race nerves: ‘It is a special day and it is a relief when you have them away without incident.’

2.58pm

Michelle Payne’s father Paddy watches from his home in Ballarat, by himself with a cup of tea.

2.59pm

Michelle Payne aboard Prince Of Penzance thinks about her late mother Mary, her late sister Brigid and of Bart Cummings. In her book she later writes that she ‘can feel they’re up there watching over me. Prince has a few of us riding with him today.’

3pm

Tension, excitement, anticipation. The Melbourne Cup is about to be run. It’s a big field but the horses load into the barriers without fuss. Despite this they run a couple of minutes late.

3.02pm

The barriers open, a flurry of colour. ‘They’re off,’ says caller Greg Miles.