Melbourne Cup

As notícias vêm atrasadas, mas também não se estragam…
No início deste mês comemorou-se mais uma corrida de cavalos, Melbourne Cup. A descrição vem abaixo em inglês (estou preguiçosa para traduzir), com algumas fotos: a corrida principal, 21 cavalos; o Black Tom, o cavalo em que apostei mas que ficou em 17º qualificado; uma amostra dos chapéus, é incrível a fortuna que algumas mulheres gastam neste dia; e finalmente o meu chapéu improvisado com flores do jardim, para o almoço especial durante a corrida.

Melbourne Cup Day is Australia's most famous Tuesday. At 3.00 pm AEST, on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the world's most famous horse races - the Melbourne Cup.
It's a day when the nation stops whatever it's doing to listen to the race call, or watch the race on TV. Even those who don't usually bet, try their luck with a small wager or entry into a 'sweep' - a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse. Since 1877, Cup Day has been a public holiday for Melbourne, and crowds have flocked to the track.

The Melbourne Cup has long been known as an urban fashion parade. The race track was one of the few places in colonial Australia where high society and the lower classes came together socially. The first Australian race meet, held in 1810, established the culture of the Melbourne Cup and was organised in Sydney by Governor Macquarie as part of a plan to improve the cultural life of Sydney.