Car-boot Camaraderie

With its own spring carnival brought down by horse flu, the Sydney Morning Herald sent writer Rachel Oakes-Ash across the Tasman to check out NZ’s racing season. Oakes-Ash headed south for the Christchurch Casino Cup and Show Week, where she attended the traditional car-boot picnic party held on the final day of racing. “Auckland may have its birdcage, champagne lawn and fabulous fillies in frocks,” she writes, “but Riccarton Park is more country picnic race, complete with open-armed hospitality, where everything’s a laugh and pretension is checked in at the door.”