Burrumbuttock Public School student Georgia Mott, 10, was lucky enough to have the Lexus Melbourne Cup visit her school and be part of a photo shoot at a local farm as part of its prestigious tour. Photo: Janene Whitty.
The Lexus Melbourne Cup’s presence in Burrumbuttock as part of the town’s celebrations last weekend has been described as the ‘perfect’ example of what a leg of the tour should look like, according to the Victorian Racing Club (VRC).
The small village in the southern Riverina celebrated its 150th anniversary on 3, 4 and 5 October and the Cup was included in the two major events: a retrospective fashion show and a street parade featuring 97 entries.
Dan Clohesy, VRC’s Head of Community, accompanied the Cup along with special guest, trainer of the 2024 Melbourne Cup winner (Knight’s Choice), Sheila Laxon, and said the Burrumbuttock visit had left a lasting impression.
“I have not stopped talking about the fashion retrospective since coming back to Melbourne. I thought it was an incredible, unique and original idea and I hadn’t seen anything like it before.
“To display the history of the town through fashion and have those young people wearing their own grandparents’ clothes was fantastic.”
Dan Closehy from the Victorian Racing Club introduces the 2024 Melbourne Cup winning trainer, Sheila Laxon, to those who gathered at Burrumbuttock Public School to celebrate its appearance. Photo: Vanessa Hayden.
Dan oversees all of VRC’s fundraising projects, its charitable work, community initiatives and equine wellbeing, along with the Cup tour.
“I enjoy all parts of my job, but it’s things like this that really bring me joy and Burrumbuttock was my idea of a perfect leg of the tour.
“Everybody’s got a different idea; our PR and marketing team love when the Cup ends up on the front page of the paper or they get a magical location like Bondi Beach with a lifeguard, but none of that matters to me at all.
“I’m all about the community events and the reaction of the people, and all of those Burrumbuttock kids turning up on a non-school day in their uniforms – I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.”
Dan and Sheila were guests at Friday night’s fashion retrospective which was a celebration of style through the decades and finished with a racing theme.
“I loved that the Melbourne Cup didn’t take over that event and that the organisers highlighted it toward the end, rather than make it all about the Cup which is not what we would have wanted or expected,” said Dan.
“It was really nice the way we were included without taking away from the primary focus of what the whole weekend was about, which was the 150th celebrations.”
The 18-carat gold Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy weighs 3.5 kilograms and is valued at $850,000, making it one of the most prized trophies in world sport. It is known as the ‘Loving Cup’ due to its design, the three handles symbolising the relationship between the winning jockey, trainer and owner.
Chairperson of the 150th celebration organisation committee Mr Ashley Lindner echoed the VRC’s sentiments and said the whole weekend was a phenomenal success and attracted an estimated 3000 people to the township.
“After the Friday night fashion retrospective, which went off so well, I was thinking how are we going to top that, we’ve set the bar so high! But the organisation of the street parade on Saturday, the whole day, the trajectory kept going upwards!
“The whole weekend went like that, everyone just did their part so well.
“The 150th organising team were just so flexible and solved any issues and accommodated things as they occurred; they went with the flow and as a result the event was brilliant.
“I’m actually in disbelief that all this preparation that has gone into it now has passed! It’s a memory now. A great one.”
The Lexus Melbourne Cup continues its tour up until the day of the big race.
Burrumbuttock will also be eligible for The Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour National Sweep which will feature 24 of the rural and regional destinations on the itinerary. Each town will be allocated a barrier in the Lexus Melbourne Cup, giving them the chance to win $50,000 for a charity of their choice.
This year marks the 165th running of the Cup (3200 m). The Lexus Melbourne Cup is the world’s richest handicap with prizemoney worth $10 million.
