MELBOURNE CUP PARTY GUIDE AND 16-PAGE DERBY DAY LIFTOUT
MELBOURNE Cup on the Gold Coast usually sees the best dressed first in.
You don’t have to be a gambler to realise the odds of landing a last-minute ticket to one of the city’s biggest or best Melbourne Cup raceday lunches are getting longer by the day.
While SEA FM’s Dan Anstey heads to Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington on Tuesday, co-host Heather Maltman will join 1000 punters for one of the Coast’s biggest Cup Day celebrations.
Maltman and SEA FM colleague Bella Frizza will dine out at the Gold Coast Turf Club’s (GCTC) sold-out “walk and fork” Event Centre Party at Aquis Park.
7 Gold Coast News anchor Amanda Abate will MC The Star Gold Coast’s sold-out Garden Kitchen & Bar lunch for guests including events promoter Jackie Cross.
Farmer Wants a Wife favourite Natalie Gruzlewski leads the field at Cucina Vivo for another of The Star’s soldout functions.
Hot Tomato’s winning breakfast team, Flan and Emily Jade with Christo, host Sea World Resort’s tropical garden-themed lunch at the Sea World Resort Conference Centre before stayers move on to the veranda for live entertainment from 3pm.
Brisbane radio presenter Bianca Dye returns home for QT Gold Coast’s annual Bazaar lunch, where she’ll join longtime friends including Aerial Angels dynamo Sue Porrett and former Hi 5 favourite Kathleen de Leon, wife of Savage Garden star Daniel Jones.
The lunch is one of several Melbourne Cup celebrations across QT, including the allnew Rosé at the Races.
Limited tickets are still available for one of the biggest and for many, best shindigs in town – the Centre of Melbourne Cup lunch for 1200 people at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Broadbeach.
Its sweeps raise funds for the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation and the event boasts the best (and biggest) screens to watch the race on – complete with state-of-theart surround sound.
For most diehard Gold Coast racing fans, nothing beats being at Aquis Park.
Officials expect up to 10,000 people on course on Tuesday, with more than 5000 tickets already sold.
Business leaders and politicians (almost always including State MP Ray Stevens) will suit up and rub shoulders in the turf club’s Boardroom, where invited guests including Tourism Minister Kate Jones and Mayor Tom Tate and wife Ruth will enjoy lunch over panoramic views of the racetrack and Surfers skyline.
Gates open to members at 8.45am and the public at 9am, with patrons warned to expect bag checks and a large police and security presence. GA tickets, $20 online, $30 at the gate, are all that’s left.
Smaller, exclusive events at cool haunts including Moo Moos, Mama San, Koi Lounge and Dining, Glass Dining and Lounge Bar, Rick Shores, Greendays and The Collective Palm Beach are proving popular with those happy to stay in their ’hood and avoid the day’s last race – the race for a ride home.