15 October

Historic Penola, a picturesque country town, home of a strong racing community and one of the oldest racing club’s in south eastern Australia, was today’s stopover for the Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour.

Starting its day at the Penola Memorial Hospital, the Tour Party, including Ambassador, Des Gleeson and VRC Representative, Judith Fitzmaurice then joined the EMCT street parade atop a vintage cart drawn by Clydesdales.

The Penola First Scout Group and Penola Hunt Club completed the procession that created a spectacle along the town’s main street.

As the parade finished at the Penola Visitor Information Centre, crowds gathered to look at the Penola Racing Club’s display of racing history and of course, view the 2011 Emirates Melbourne Cup trophy.

A visit to the Mary MacKillop Centre was timely given the first anniversary of Mary’s canonisation and we even boarded a tour bus on route through Penola, with passengers surprised yet excited at the Cup’s impromptu appearance on their trip.

Lunch with members and committee of the Penola Racing Club and an opportunity to ‘talk racing’ with some of the Cup’s biggest fans was followed by a presentation to the Penola First Scout’s Group, worthy recipients of a donation from the Melbourne Cup Community Fund.

Next, it was off to the landmark Coonawarra region, aptly titled ‘the other red centre’ and home to some of Australia’s best wineries.

Here, the Cup was the centre of attention as patrons of the Coonawarra Celebrations Weekend enjoyed their chance with the iconic trophy. From one red centre to the next, the Tour party retired in preparation to travel to Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world.