Flemington’s exclusive Birdcage enclosure will have even more of a party vibe this year, according to Rogers.
“We have been deliberate this year to reorient the footprint of the Birdcage to create a festival, a party,” she says. “We obviously have our major partners front of house, but it culminates in an amphitheatre of fun. The back of the amphitheatre is a big stage where we’ll have music acts and, while the racing is on, Flemington TV.”
An artist’s render of this year’s three storey Lexus marquee for the Birdcage at Flemington.
Marquee construction is well underway at Flemington with the multi-storey structures already erected on the lawns and taking prime position at the corner of the Birdcage is Lexus’ three storey ‘Landmark’ marquee with balconies on every level and interiors designed by Brahman Perera.
Former Tetsuya’s executive chef Josh Raine, who owns and operates Sydney wine bar 40Res, is helming the food at Lexus and will be serving sashimi and Wagyu beef with smoked eggplant.
Next door Crown’s marquee will also be three storeys and it will sit alongside Nine, owner of this masthead, Mumm’s “Setting Sail” marquee, TAB and Lion’s Izakaya-themed marquee in the front row.
At the back of the Birdcage the VRC’s “Marmont” marquee headed up by Grant Smillie allows public access to the once invitation-only Birdcage at a price with tickets $2200 each.
DJ Fisher, who played at the LIV Golf in 2024, is set to play the Melbourne Cup Carnival.Credit: AP
It’s out with the Grange and in with the actuaries at this year’s carnival with wine brand Penfolds no longer a sponsor, replaced by insurance company Howden.
Penfolds for many years hosted the party marquee with saxophonists on the dance floor and tastings of 2020 Grange, which retails for $1000 a bottle.
However, the wine brand pulled its sponsorship last year and there is no replacement sponsor for Penfold’s prime marquee spot overlooking the parade ring. Instead, it will be replaced by the VRC’s own offering ‘Parade Social’.
DeBortoli is the VRC’s wine partner for the carnival but neither Howden or DeBortoli will have a marquee in the Birdcage, which Rogers attributes to the short turnaround on the sponsorship changes and says “that’s all opportunity moving forward”.
“We’ve only ever had four naming rights sponsors of Derby Day in the history of Derby Day, and Howden is a principal partner of Royal Ascot [in the United Kingdom], and it was wonderful to spend time with them over at Royal Ascot and see how dedicated they are to the equine industry,” she says.
Juggling sponsors and marquees in the exclusive Birdcage enclosure will be key to the VRC shoring up its finances after recording a $24 million loss last year.
On taking on the top job a year ago Rogers got to work cutting costs including making 40 redundancies across the VRC’s staff.
“It was very clear on arrival that a big focus was ensuring we are financially independent and prudent with our spending,” she says. “We have right-sized the business.”
Rogers isn’t keen to identify any cuts and instead says she has focused on identifying double-ups within the club.
VRC Birdcage Map 2025 Spring RacingCredit: VRC
“We’ve removed that duplication and that has allowed us to focus on spending money in the right areas,” she says.
Rogers points to record VRC membership of 34,320 last year and pre-tax earnings of $12 million, a $17 million increase on the previous year.
“We’ve had a great year financially,” Rogers says.
One headache Rogers didn’t want to deal with is an investigation into her teenage son who was reported for underage drinking at Turnbull Stakes Day in the VRC’s prestigious Committee Room.
Rogers declined to comment.
“I can’t talk about it because the investigation is ongoing,” she says.
She will be counting on the VRC’s lucrative new deals with Tabcorp and Nine and bumper crowds to bolster the bottom line.
“We had 185,000 patrons across the four days last year, which was 8 per cent up year-on-year, and we are targeting more again,” she says.
Rogers is looking to the future as well with 40 per cent of the VRC’s general admission patrons last year under 30.
“I can see the opportunity, and I can see different ways where we can innovate and push further,” she says. “And that’s what we’re doing with these footprint changes, precinct changes, and we’re just starting.”
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