The world’s most travelled sporting trophy, the Melbourne Cup, is set to join champion Australian jockey, Damien Oliver, creating a historical re-union at the 2012 Brother’s Cairns Cup on Sunday August 12.
On Saturday August 11, the illustrious Melbourne Cup, escorted by Tour Ambassador Sheila Laxon, will be in our midst once again as part of the 10th Anniversary Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour of Australasia.
The first official duty for the Cup in north Queensland is a breakfast sausage sizzle with local families, school students and tourists, hosted by ZincFM at ANZAC Park in Pt Douglas after a short paddle in an outrigger canoe from the Port Douglas Marina.
Sheila (Tour Ambassador) and the Cup will then travel via helicopter to the Outer Barrier Reef Pontoon where it will be met by the Quicksilver boat, placed in a specially made waterproof case and taken scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef to meet ‘Nemo’ and friends in their spectacular coral garden.
Arriving back in Cairns, the Melbourne Cup will be greeted with an informal Council Civic Reception on the West event lawn on the Cairns Esplanade at 6pm including a sausage sizzle hosted by Rotary.
Tour Ambassador, Sheila Laxton along with Damien Oliver and a representative of the VRC will address the audience of Mayor, Councillors and families. Tourists and locals are also invited to attend this event where the winner of the Cairns Melbourne Cup Tour colouring competition will be revealed.
The Cup will continue with community engagements, including Morning Tea at Holy Spirit Retirement Village, on the Sunday, August 12 and then visit Cannon Park for the Running of the 101st Brothers Cairns Cup and be joined by one of Australia’s leading jockeys Damien Oliver who will be riding in the coveted Brothers Cairns Cup.
The Melbourne Cup will then be involved in the Cairns Jockey Club celebration of 50 years of Fashions of the Field, a High Tea event catered by the Sebel Cairns as we celebrate with a parade of five decades of fashion.
The Cup will be available for photo opportunities before jetting off to New Zealand where the Cup will visit Auckland and be paraded in a colourful street festival at Dargaville in the North Island and continue on with it’s journey across Australia from Launceston in Tasmania.
The Cairns Jockey Club is expecting larger than usual crowds for the Brothers Cairns Cup due to the country’s top jockey, Damien Oliver, riding in the Cairns Cup and the Melbourne Cup which is proving to be a winning quinella.
Cairns Jockey Club President John Smith says “We are delighted with the outstanding line up for this year’s Brothers Cairns Cup, we are already heavily booked and it is proving to be one of our best years yet.”
