Cup Day, Melbourne 2025
Cup Day always sneaks up, even when one knows it's coming. By the time one glances at the morning papers, half of Melbourne seems to have found a hat, a horse, and a reason to take the day off.
The Four Days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival: Dress, Decorum, and Distinction
ach November, the lawns of Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne become a theatre of sport, ceremony, and style. The Melbourne Cup Carnival extends across four days, each with its own rhythm, colour, and unwritten dress code. To attend the Carnival well is to understand its sequence
A Tradition in Motion: The History of the Melbourne Cup
From colonial paddock to global stage, the Melbourne Cup has traced Australia’s rise from frontier to modernity — one furlong at a time. The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, when the city was still a young colonial settlement.
The Season Under Other Stars
While the northern countryside settles into mist and pheasant calls, the Southern Hemisphere is bright with its own anticipation. In Melbourne, the air sharpens, the jacarandas bloom, and the lawns of Flemington Racecourse are cut to a billiard's smoothness.
The St Leger Stakes 2025: Why Yesterday's Classic Proves the Best Horse Still Wins at Doncaster
Yesterday's St Leger Stakes reminded one why this particular afternoon in September continues to matter. As the oldest Classic settled into its familiar rhythm at Doncaster Racecourse, there was that satisfying sense of witnessing something...
The Glorious Twelfth: Grouse Season Upon Us
There is something rather magical about the twelfth of August. Not merely because it marks the official opening of grouse season across Britain's moorlands, but because it represents one of those moments when the countryside seems to exhale after the long summer months.
Glorious Goodwood: A Garden Party with Racing Tacked On
"A garden party with racing tacked on" — King Edward VII's memorable description of Glorious Goodwood remains as apt today as it was over a century ago.
Notes from Glyndebourne: The Country House Opera
There are places one returns to not only for what they offer,
Between the Banks: The Regatta Unfiltered
There's something rather English about turning a river into a theatre. At Henley Royal Regatta, the Thames becomes a coveted viewing platform in rowing, where champagne glasses catch the afternoon light and some of the best seats happen to float on the very waters where careers are made.
What Is Henley Royal Regatta? A Primer on Boats, Blazers, and the Riverbank
🛶 Each July, Henley-on-Thames becomes the stage for a most English sort of
Four Carriages at Two O'Clock
In an age when most traditions have been focus-grouped to death or abandoned entirely, the Royal Procession at Royal Ascot remains deliciously, defiantly unchanged.
How to Bet at Royal Ascot (Without Looking Like a Fool)
Royal Ascot may be known for waistcoats and wide brims, but at its heart, it is a meeting of horses—and those who wish to back them. Betting is as much a part of the tradition as the pageantry, and for many, it's part of the fun.