Kids and parents cannot help but enjoy themselves on Stakes day at Flemington

You could go racing for the rest of your life and not find someone who is having as much fun as Chloe on Stakes day at Flemington.

Three races in to her first ever racecourse visit and she is yet to see a horse, but that does not really matter when you're four years old with popcorn on tap, your face is painted like a puppy and you are on the trampoline for what mum Emma estimates is the 18th time.

It is the final day of the Melbourne Cup carnival and it is family day, meaning kids aged 15 and under get in free when accompanied by an adult. And there is plenty for them to do.

"Currently she's on the trampoline for the 18th time, but she's been checking out the shows, the elephant, she went in the fashions on the field, she's having a great day," says Emma, whose highlight has been seeing her daughter so happy.

They've both come dressed for the races and Emma promises they have never looked so glamorous as she babysits Chloe's rapidly deflating unicorn. Emma's grandfather was a bookmaker and she started at an age not too dissimilar to her daughter, but without all the bells and whistles.

So is she missing not seeing a horse? "In a lot of ways it's similar to when I was coming in my twenties," she laughs.

Madison and Georgie are four and five, but they are seasoned Stakes day racegoers. After last year's experience, which was not too different to the introduction Chloe is currently enjoying, they eventually made it trackside. This year they begged mum and dad, Rhiannon and Gabrial, to bring them back.

Madison, as ringleader, led demands as she wanted to see the horses. Georgie likes it as they get to dress up. Consequently the family are camped on the rail of the chute to the racetrack about 100m from the finish line and the two kids, whose dresses match the rosebushes, have found an ingenious way to haul themselves up onto the rail for an even better view.

On such days it is accepted families may come for the sideshows but the hope is they come back for the racing. At Flemington it appears to work.

That may be because instead of doing it to bolster one of their worst cards of the year they do it during the carnival, when all anyone in Melbourne is talking about is the racing, and there are two Group 1s, a Group 2, two Group 3s and a Listed race on the card.

For the groups of 13 and 14-year-olds who excitedly state they come every year, it means they actually stop clowning around long enough to watch each race.

They cannot drink or bet yet, but that does not stop them getting dressed up and shouting one home. As Darren and Greg say: "The girls are here so we're here." Where teenage girls go, teenage boys will follow.

It is not just the kids enjoying themselves, it is also a chance for mum and dad to dress up and have fun. Aaron and Tink have their 13-, five- and one-year-olds with them and while they do not have enough eyes to keep track of them all, they are not unduly bothered.

"We used to come by ourselves and watch, now we're over here [in the park area away from the course] but we're still here, we've got dressed up and we're pretending we're on a date," says Tink as they raise a glass of champagne each.

It seems it's not just Chloe having the time of her life; wherever you go there are people making the most of a great day's racing at Flemington.

They do a lot of things right down here and making the sport part of people's lives is chief among them. That 67,567 attended possibly the highest quality family day in the world is testament to that.

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