Despite the threatening skies, fashionable Melburnians proved once again Derby Day is the place to be seen during the spring racing carnival.
It being Melbourne, the weather was weird and unpredictable. A huge crack of thunder and sudden downpour sent punters scrambling to secure shelter before race 1, with the grey clouds sticking around for most of the morning.
Coats were then slung over shoulders and sunglasses sat firmly atop noses as the crowd enjoyed moments of brilliant sunshine.
But one group of Brisbane-based friends weren’t ready to ditch the umbrellas, dubious of Melbourne’s unpredictable weather. They were right to be wary.
The heavens opened and drenched everyone just minutes before race 4, sending people again scurrying for cover or hunkering down beneath umbrellas.
Some even found cover among Flemington’s famous rosebushes.
“I should have brought that jacket,” one woman could be heard screaming to her friend amid the downpour.
Within a few minutes, it had passed.
Once the sun was out again, the crowd could crack on with taking selfies, picnicking and placing bets.
Undeterred by the weather were 19-year-olds Carla Gunn and Lucy Woolhouse.
VRC member Gunn loves the drama and glamour of raceday and helped Woolhouse pick her monochrome outfit last night.
Eli Wilson of Bundoora told his mates to back the favourite.
It worked. Brady Last, from Devonport, won $3000 in race 6.
“It’s the biggest adrenaline dump,” he said.
As always, in a sea of monochrome there were a few colourful standouts around the track.
Darren Anquetil and Suryani Suerz unknowingly defied the black-and-white dress code, splashing out on matching aubergine-hued outfits for Suerz’s first race day experience.
“They can like it or leave it,” Anquetil said of their fashion faux pas.
Groom-to-be Josh Parsons, of Bacchus Marsh, was left in the dark about his attire for Derby Day – and his suit didn’t exactly meet the black-and-white theme.
Parsons was blindfolded and buttoned into a hot pink suit plastered with his fiancée Cristin Brincat’s face before heading to Flemington for his surprise buck’s party.
“I had no idea, but I feel great and you’ve got to own it and get into being the only bloke in pink,” he said.
Sticking true to black and white was AFL identity “Catman”, aka Troy West, swapping his usual feline attire for a snazzy suit decked out in white buttons, sewn by him mum.
“She does a lot of outrageous things for me,” he said.
West spent 10 months trawling op shops across Melbourne, even finding buttons from as far as Geelong, Daylesford and Bendigo to adorn his outfit.
West, son of former Geelong premiership player and Carji Greeves Medal winner Roy West, was attending his first Derby Day and intends to make it an annual event.
“He is just loving the attention,” West’s husband said of his bedazzled suit.
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