{"id":4616,"date":"2014-11-05T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=4616"},"modified":"2014-11-04T17:39:23","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T22:39:23","slug":"the-race-that-stops-a-nation-australias-melbourne-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/the-race-that-stops-a-nation-australias-melbourne-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"The race that stops a nation: Australia\u2019s Melbourne Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Melbourne Cup racing grounds.
Image by Chris Phutully on Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

Australia\u2019s Derby Day, or the Melbourne Cup, is also known as \u201cthe race that stops a nation,\u201d because everyone in Australia really does stop to watch this horse race! Horse racing is a very popular spectator sport in Australia and the Melbourne Cup is the biggest of all horse races in the country. In fact in the state where this horse race is run, Victoria, the day of the Melbourne Cup is an official holiday! This race is held every year on the first Tuesday in November.<\/p>\n

So, you might be asking yourself, what makes this race so special? First of all this race is very old, it has been run continuously for 154 years.\u00a0 The very first race was held in 1861, at the same track where it is held today. Also, this is a very elite horse race. Those that run in this race have to qualify and only the very best of the best do. The Melbourne Cup is a 3,200-meter (2 mile) race, run on turf (or grass). The horses in the race must be 3 years old or older. Another reason this race is such a big deal is that it is considered to be the richest two-mile race in the world.\u00a0 This year\u2019s race collected a record $98 million in bets (bet = a sum of money that is risked on the outcome a race or game). No wonder everyone in Australia stops to watch this race \u2013 they all have money on it!<\/p>\n

This year, the horse that won The Melbourne Cup is named Protectionist (protagonist = the leading character in a story). He is a 5-year-old horse, who was ridden in the Melbourne Cup by an English jockey (jockey = a person who rides in horse races as a profession), named Ryan Moore. Many people regard Moore as the best jockey in the world, so this was definitely a great horse-jockey pairing.<\/p>\n

If you missed seeing this famous Australian horse race live, here is your chance to see it. Of course you can\u2019t make any bets on the race now, since you already know who won, but you can watch to see how this great race unfolded. The horse that is ahead in the beginning \u201cMy Ambivalent\u201d finished 17th (out of 22). The horse \u201cAdmire Rakti,\u201d who was the favorite to win the race, was in second place most of the time, but ended up losing the race (and very sadly died soon after the end of the race). The winner of the race \u201cProtectionist\u201d is near the middle of the pack (pack = a group of animals) much of the race. Ryan Moore, is the jockey wearing a blue and checkered shirt. See if you can spot him. When there is only 100m left in the race Protectionist pulls away from the pack for the big win.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LnzlLHKyw1Q<\/a><\/p>\n

This race is only three and half minutes long, but like I mentioned it makes the whole country of Australia stop.\u00a0 Some people \u201cstop\u201d for the whole day, not going to work, and instead going to race day parties.\u00a0 Parties, drinking, and betting, are a big part of celebrating and having fun on this day in Australia.\u00a0 Apart from the horse racing, the other BIG event of the day is watching the fashion. Women wearing hats to horse races is a tradition in the English-speaking world and the hats worn on Derby Day are considered high fashion. Take a look below at some of the fun and crazy hats that are worn at horse races.<\/p>\n

\"Women's<\/a>

Image by Jaguar MENA on Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even if you weren\u2019t able to watch this race live, I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about it and Australian culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Women's

Australia\u2019s Derby Day, or the Melbourne Cup, is also known as \u201cthe race that stops a nation,\u201d because everyone in Australia really does stop to watch this horse race! Horse racing is a very popular spectator sport in Australia and the Melbourne Cup is the biggest of all horse races in the country. In fact…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":4618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[333601,207504,333602,9327,333600,333598],"class_list":["post-4616","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-the-race-that-stops-a-nation","tag-australia","tag-derby-day","tag-hats","tag-horse-race","tag-melbourne-cup"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4616"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4620,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions\/4620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}