APPLECROSS ROTARY JACARANDA FESTIVAL
The count down is on with 19 more sleeps before our hugely popular annual community event, the APPLECROSS ROTARY JACARANDA FESTIVAL. Kenn and team have been extremely busy working through the usual applications to hold the event with the added requirement this year to have a COVID Event Plan. Our stallholders have been locked-in and are being professionally managed by Erin Madeley Consulting. We are starting to receive applications for next years event from stallholders who missed out this year.
As a requirement for our COVID plan we need to maintain attendance records of festival attendees for contact tracing purposes. We will be encouraging people to pre register their attendance to minimise the delays at our entry points. By scanning the following you will be taken to the registration site. Please try it and register.
GUEST SPEAKER PETER SYMONS: Betting - bookies versus punters
Once again we had the privilege of Peter Symons, a veterinarian with the turf club, join us for our Melbourne Cup Day breakfast meeting. Peter entertained and educated us with stories on how bookmakers operate. Peter's father was a horse trainer and once said that "bookies are so smart that they should be running the country". Peter took us through all the terms such as 'lay-off', 'plunges', 'odds-on', 'hot favourite' etc.
Peter told the story about a vet who didn't diagnose a horse who was the Cup favourite and had 'heat in the hoof' which caused it to run 19th. The news headlines the next day was "VET COSTS PUNTERS $20M", not something you would want in your resume!
The influence and information that the bookies have today is diminished due to the TAB holding most of the money which has increased the prize money resulting in owners, trainers and jockeys wanting to 'stay' in the race. The racing industry employs a lot of people and the TAB returns a significant amount of money back into the community.
Peter finished by saying his mother was a great carer who said she wouldn't mind being a race horse in their stable. So as a mark of respect for his mother and for the welfare of horses he put together a 7 minute video on the 'life of a race horse' that he shared with members at the end of meeting.
MELBOURNE CUP LUNCH
Following our special Melbourne Cup breakfast meeting and a Jac Fest stallholder meeting, I joined Kenn and Chris for a very pleasant and well organised Melbourne Cup event at the East Fremantle Yacht Club.
Kenn won the best dressed male prize (I think?) and a very pleasant afternoon was had overlooking our beautiful Swan River.
TOMORROW CONNOR WILL BE ATTENDING THE FIRST APPLECROSS MEETING HE COULD SINCE HIS RELEASE FROM HOTEL QUARANTINE WEDNESDAY EVENING.
