Families from around the Riverina converged on Barellan sportsground to don a white glove and hold one of the nation’s most iconic sporting trophies, the Lexus Melbourne Cup.
The tiny town with no racecourse was the final NSW leg of a global and Australian tour of 39 destinations for the $750,000, 18 carat gold and 3.85kg Lexus Melbourne Cup.
Barellan Working Clydesdales hosted the famous trophy on July 10, along with Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour ambassador and legendary race caller Greg Miles, and Ryan Kellam, Victoria Racing Club.
Visitors were able to put on a white glove and have their photograph taken holding the precious Cup, as well as enjoying wagon rides and old-fashioned games while raising $694 for MND Australia in gold coin donations.
The Cup has been touring for 22 years, clocking up one million kilometres, and 110,000km in 2024.
Barellan Working Clydesdales president Bruce Bandy drove a team of six Clydesdales pulling a tabletop wagon and master harness maker Tim Peel gave a talk on the teams and their harness in years gone by.
The Cup made stops at Barellan’s Big Tennis Racquet, Barellan CWA House, the Barellan post office, Barellan and District War Memorial Club and the Commercial Hotel.
The CWA House and hotel both celebrate centenaries this year.
Greg Miles, one of the world’s greatest race callers, spoke on his extraordinary career of calling 36 Melbourne Cups and the legends of the turf including Makybe Diva, Black Caviar, Winx, Kingston Town, Might and Power, Northerly and Bonecrusher.
Miles called his first Cup at the age of 22 in 1981 when Just a Dash won and became the oncourse caller at Flemington in 1989.
He is famous for his catch cry of a “champion becomes a legend” when talented mare Makybe Diva made it a three peat in 2005.
Miles retired from race calling in 2017 but enjoys travelling with the Lexus Melbourne Cup as its ambassador and presented the Barellan Working Clydesdales Committee with a miniature solid gold Lexus Melbourne Cup.
Barellan is one of 24 rural and regional Australian towns chosen to be part of the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour National Sweep which sees each town allocated a barrier draw in the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup.
Representatives from each of the 24 destinations will be flown to Melbourne to watch the Lexus Melbourne Cup live on track at Flemington and the town which draws the barrier of the winning horse will be presented with a cash prize of $50,000 to put towards a charity of their choice.
Miles visited Cootamundra, Harden, Boorowa and Barellan on the final leg.
“It’s been a great leg of the tour – we flew into Canberra on Sunday and everywhere we have been we were tremendously well received, and they put on good shows at each venue with great crowds and interaction,” he said.
“We’ve been to four nursing homes and that lightens up the resident’s life. The Cup puts a smile on people’s faces as it’s an iconic trophy and people realise that.
“We are often asked if it is the real Cup, and it is the actual Cup the winner will receive.
People get the chance to hold the real deal, then watch the Cup on the first Tuesday in November and know that was they had in their hands a few months before.
“It has been a great turn out at Barellan, and the Cup was well received. This was the first stop to have a large Clydesdale horse team and the Cup was given the respect it deserves by the country people.
“This tour has taken me to places I wouldn’t normally visit – it’s been terrific. I find it really does touch people and is part of the Australian DNA. It is truly the only event which stops the entire nation – it’s an iconic race and iconic trophy, and a real privilege to travel the country with it.”
The Lexus Melbourne Cup now heads to Darwin, Tennant Creek and Katherine, Northern Territory, followed by Qatar Goodwood Festival, United Kingdom, and Galway Races Summer Festival, Ireland.
This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 18 July 2024.
