Club Mandalay in Beveridge hosted the 2023 Lexus Melbourne Cup tour on Thursday, giving people the chance to hold the $600,000 dollar cup.
The cup has 1.65 kilograms of 18-carat gold and totals 3.8 kilograms including all elements of the cup, down to the screws made in Australia.
Club Mandalay was one of 41 locations selected to host the tour, which travels Australia-wide and internationally to countries including Ireland, New Zealand, France and Japan.
Club Mandalay general manager Peter Mitchell said it was a great opportunity to bring the community together.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to work with a quality brand like the Victorian Racing Club and bring the cup out for our community and our residents to enjoy,” he said.
“It’s a very rare opportunity to get up close to something that is prized on a global stage, so for us to be able to facilitate that and have our community members come in and enjoy the opportunity is great.
“That’s what we’re trying to do – engage our community with this facility and this opportunity is a perfect way to do that.”
Facepainting, a jumping castle and pony rides were also available for children to enjoy on the day while their caregivers enjoyed viewing the cup.
Victorian Racing Club, VRC, representative Stewart Cook said the tours had great engagement.
“For me personally, it’s a great opportunity to see what the VRC actually means to people and for the VRC itself it is an opportunity to share the cup,” he said.
“It’s called ‘the People’s Cup’ and we want to take it out to people and get this sort of exposure we have happening right now where people that may not ever get to go to the actual races can feel like they have a connection to it and be part of it.
“Absolutely we have seen community engagement. Obviously, we’re close to Melbourne so you get a lot of engagement but even more remotely – sometimes families drive a couple of hours to see the cup and, the community themselves, they go to a lot of effort for it.
“We were at a retirement village earlier today and they were all dressed up, had a band playing and they all really get behind it.”
