Check out our photos of the Melbourne Cup party in London here.
On Tuesday 5 November, Fiorente took out Australian racing’s biggest prize, winning the 2013 Melbourne Cup.
17,000 kilometres away, and 15 hours after the race was won the Australian expat community in London gathered at Australia House to celebrate.
The 2013 Corporate Traveller Melbourne Cup celebration brought only the best parts of a day at the races. There were no round-the-block queues for portaloos, high heels getting stuck in the grass, or gridlocked taxi ranks here.
Compared to the 100,000 who attended Flemington, this Melbourne Cup party presented by Australian Business entertained a more intimate and comfortable crowd of 300.
The only things missing were the springtime sunshine, and the bookies. But when standing in arguably the most spectacular race-day marquee in the world – the Exhibition Hall at Australia House – no one was really thinking about the weather or gambling.
Dressed in their best, guests were treated to delicious finger food, fine drinks, and of course horse races, albeit arcade style. There was also a photo booth, where every passport photo guideline was broken, with costumes, smiles, and crazy poses.
Roaming the party were fashion experts. They looked racegoers up and down, from hat to toe, trying to find nominees to compete in the Fashions on the Field parade.
If you were a man there was not much competition. For the ladies, it was much tougher to stand out, as there were so many beautifully dressed. However it came down to four men, and four women who each got their top model on, and strutted down the catwalk.
Once the winners were decided – they received exclusive shopping experiences from Westfield London – the ‘nation’ stopped to watch a replay of the Melbourne Cup race.
To end the evening trays of hard-to-resist Lamington and Pavlova desserts.
Images courtesy of Mark Alexander Adlington. For more information visit www.markalexanderadlington.com