The racing fraternity has plenty of entertaining tales about lost Cups and society dames dancing on tables at Melbourne restaurants over the years. But equine folk are largely superstitious and many syndicates won’t plan celebrations until after the race. So a select handful of savvy restaurants will be prepared for late-night revelry when the high flyers leave the track this year.
Crown Casino’s Rockpool and Koko restaurants are among the most popular and begin planning Cup-week menus well in advance. “We know it’s going to be a busy time and over the years, we have become skilled at juggling and gearing up to accommodate as many customers as we can,” says Rockpool Group’s Vanessa Crichton.
Becco’s Simon Hartley says celebrations for Cup eve and Derby eve are generally booked in advance. But he takes a “gin in hand” approach to post-Cup day celebrations. “For the punters it’s a long day so they often don’t last long,” he says. “The keen and confident will book early and if they win we may need to shuffle tables around. But there’s a lot of movement on the day, so we just go with the flow and keep calm about it.”
Mark Kavanagh, of Kavanagh Racing, has Cox Plate favourite Super Cool and 2013 Cox Plate winner Atlantic Jewel lined up for success this year. But he considers it bad luck to book a restaurant before a race. Kavanagh says his favourite place to toast success is Cecconi’s in Flinders Lane.
“My Cox Plate night at Red Emperor was extremely memorable (Maldivian, 2008),” he says. “We had great food and actually recruited a couple of buskers off the boulevard and paid them to entertain us.
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“The other, of course, was the Melbourne Cup (Shocking, 2009). Crown each year have these rooms that they can prepare quickly. We won the Cup at 3pm and they
had a room ready to go for 150 people by 4.30pm for us to arrive at 6pm.”
Colm Santry, of Coolmore Stud in the Hunter Valley, has been coming to Melbourne for the Cup for 20 years. “Rockpool at Crown is a fantastic spot. For the hedonists among us, it’s in close proximity to all that the Casino has to offer and the food is wonderful.”
Consistent Irish success in the Cup has given the Coolmore contingent frequent cause for celebration, with Becco a favourite. “We have had some spectacular nights, in Chinatown after Vintage Crop’s Cup win, in O’Connell’s in South Melbourne after Media Puzzle’s win and, more recently, at Crown when Mahler ran third,” says Santry.
Racing journalist Danny Power says the Southern Cross Hotel hosted celebrations until its closure in 1999. “I covered it in 1990, the year that Bart Cummings won the Cup with Kingston Rule,” he says.
When the hotel closed, the syndicates sought alternative venues and the tradition of the expensive dinners began.
Brad Spicer, principal of Spicer Thoroughbreds, recalls celebrations after Starspangledbanner won the Caulfield Guineas in 2011. “We had sold it for $10 million and it won, so we booked upstairs at Becco. “We had the set menu, which is their tradition, with salt and pepper chilli squid and great veal costoletta. Everyone who goes to Becco must order that.”
There’s no room for superstition at OTI Racing. Director Terry Henderson says his cohorts celebrate regardless and book in advance. “Pei Modern at the entrance to The Sofitel has been a favourite place after the Cup for the past two years and we plan to go there again this year,” he says.
More people drank from the Melbourne Cup after Doriemus won in 1995 than have done in the 18 years since, says Henderson. It was taken to the Middle Park Hotel with a security guard in tow. “Tired and hungry, I rang Florentino at midnight and they kindly stayed open for a group of about 20 of us to have dinner. It’s good to have won the Cup when you want to get into a place at that time of night.”
Celebrations were still in order when Bauer placed second in the 2008 Cup. “It may seem unusual to some people to celebrate after losing the Cup (to Viewed by three centimetres), but the feeling at Comme, where we linked up afterwards, was as if we’d won,” says Henderson. “Bauer was 33/1. He had exceeded our expectations and our fellow owners were still delighted.”
Gerry Ryan, co-owner of the Melbourne Pub Group and owner of pre-post favourite Puissance de Lune, regularly celebrates at the group’s equine-themed Middle Park Hotel, but lists Circa, Newmarket Hotel (both also owned by the group) and Red Emperor as favourites, too.
“A great tale would be when Americain won the Melbourne Cup (in 2010),” says Ryan. “The Cup got lost in the Middle Park Hotel after being passed around the bar and I thought someone had taken it. We later realised we had left it in the safe hands of the security guard.”
