NO doubt the VIPS, politicians and celebrities who attended Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup had a wow of a time.
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But it is doubtful they would have had a more exciting time than the international beef producers who enjoyed the hospitality of Ian and Jill Coghlan at their Eurimbla Red Poll Stud at Gerogery.
The group is visiting Australia for the Red Poll World Congress, an event which happens every three years, with hosting rights shared between countries.
Most of the American, Canadian, Jamaican, British and Kenyan producers had never heard of the Melbourne Cup, though obviously the Kiwis claimed a long association with the race.
The tour has focused on mixing business with pleasure: after a couple of hours of inspecting the Coghlans’ cattle, the group settled down to the serious business of the Melbourne Cup, with the Aussies among them organising sweeps and roses for the group’s members.
Dean Anderson, from northern British Columbia, who has a son in Sydney, said he did not know a lot about the Melbourne Cup.
“It is a very Australian type race, very open and more about the jockey and the horse rather than flat out speed,” he said.
Heather Wellington, a beef producer from Jamaica, who is travelling with her father, animal geneticist Dr Karl Wellington, and her mother Bloom, said she had not heard about the Cup until the tour reached Melbourne.
She said she studied the form guide and backed Unchain My Heart, which finished 16th.
Ms Wellington will always remember her first Melbourne Cup because she won one of the sweeps.
But while organisers of the tour have ensured the international visitors have seen plenty of Australia since the tour started in Western Australia on October 21, there has been ample cattle business along the way, with visits to shows and studs.
The group arrived in Albury on Sunday and on Monday attended the 14th Red Poll World Congress Conference, which featured beef industry identities such as Gerald Spry and Don Lawson, principal of Lawson’s Angus.
The group left Albury on Wednesday, travelling to Canberra, where they visited the Australian War Memorial.
They then head back to inland NSW and Queensland, with the tour finishing on Tuesday.
Red Poll World Congress — Country Mail next week.
