It may be the race that stops the nation, but if Monday’s Melbourne Cup parade succeeded in stopping the city it was only because of strict traffic management.
Even the most enthusiastic spectators wearing red caps handed out by Emirates, major sponsor of the $6.2m race, remarked that it seemed rather brief.
“It was good,” said one man, who had arrived with a phalanx of red-hatted friends on a cruise ship from Sydney for the purpose of attending tomorrow’s race. “Short but good.”
His companions nodded: “It’s the atmosphere, isn’t it? I think that’s what we’re here for.”
Several thousand people – far short of the 15,000 promised by the Victorian Racing Commission – lined the long metal barriers hemming Bourke and Swanston streets, although some confessed they had been trapped there by accident when the barriers went up.
As city-stopping events go it attracted less of a crowd than the protests against the closure of remote Indigenous communities or the Invasion Day march, both of which closed the CBD for several hours.
The parade proper took a little over 15 minutes, preceded by about 30 minutes of everybody lining up and television reporters trying not to bump into each other while filming a live cross.
There was a line of vintage cars bearing the trainer, jockey, and occasionally owners of each runner in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, then a number of cars carrying ambassadors from the various event sponsors in a who’s who of Melbourne celebrities.
Alongside and occasionally in front of this staid affair were the “fun” elements that looked as if they had been drawn out of a suitably festive hat by the kind of person who says “Wahey!” in meetings.
There were women on stilts dressed like a cross between a jockey and a ringmaster, followed by two more people on stilts in puffy silks reminiscent of the time Harry Potter lost his temper and accidentally blew up his aunt.
Then there was a group of men in top hats adorned by what looked like the tail feathers of a lyrebird.
Slightly further back was the band, also dressed as jockeys but with addition of stuffed toy horses wedged awkwardly between their knees, who kept swapping places with a group of young girls in vintage dresses that appeared to be celebrating Phar Lap’s 90th birthday, again.
The band was soon drummed out by the brass-buttoned Caulfield South primary school drum corps.
Woven among this colourful gaggle was the parade of champions past, which consisted of pictures of former cup winners tugged along by bicycle couriers.
Actual horses – ridden by the Mansfield high country men and women and looking rather more solid than the expensive waifs which will glide around Flemington racetrack – followed up in the rear.
It was, said Monica Bardon, a wonderful atmosphere. Bardon, her daughter Emma, and friend Dianne Auld happened upon the parade after meeting in the city for morning tea. They had commandeered a bench to watch.
“I just enjoy the excitement of it all, it’s wonderful,” Bardon said.
Shirley Hawke-Riches, who with her friend Gwen Byrne travelled from Perth, Western Australia, said she was excited to see the parade and attend the cup for the first time, although she had some reservations about the weather forecast.
The race will be run at 3pm on Tuesday and in accordance with Melbourne Cup tradition, it promises to rain.
At the end of the parade was Elio Celotto, his shiny suit standing out from a throng of protesters chanting “Horse racing kills” at the indifferent crowd.
Celotto is the director of the coalition for the protection of racehorses, an animal rights organisation that is calling for the racing industry to devote 1% of all betting turnover – about $165m annually – to set up a retirement plan for the thousands of thoroughbreds that move through the Australian racing industry every year.
“That would be a substantial amount of money that would give each horse the opportunity to be rehabilitated, retrained and rehomed,” Celotto said.
“Because it’s not just about finding homes. These horses have to be rehabilitated and retrained otherwise they are considered dangerous and that’s why we see so many sent to slaughter.”
New South Wales recently announced a $2m racehorse retirement plan, off the back of the short-lived greyhound racing ban, and Celotto said the Victorian racing industry was expected to follow suit.
But, he said, that was not enough: it needed to be a national scheme and horses needed to be registered and tracked.
Celotto’s group is also campaigning for the racing industry to be halved, and for the whip to be banned during races in an attempt to reduce the number of horses euthanised or retired due to injury.
About 130 die or are euthanised for activities related to flat racing each year, and several thousand more meet their end through the saleyards and the knackery.
The 2015 runner-up, Red Cadeaux, was euthanised in late November due to injuries sustained in the cup, and in 2014 two horses – Admire Rakti and Araldo – died on cup day.
“It’s the race that stops the nation. We want to be a nation that stops the race,” Celotto said.
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