Melbourne Cup Day

Australians are serious about horse racing. This past Tuesday was the 150^th Annual Melbourne Cup Day.  It is a public holiday in Victoria and might as well be a public holiday in the rest of the county as the entire population of Australia stops whatever they are doing to watch the three minute race at 3:30pm.  Work provided us a special lunch and also gave us cider, beer and wine in the kitchen during the buildup to the race.  At the moment of the race there was barely a car on the road or a boat in the Harbor and there was certainly not a single person from my office working. Everyone was dressed to the nines (by work standards) in fascinators and hats cheering on the horses. It was unlike any other work function I’ve attended.

Even Google got into it on Melbourne Cup Day

This year the favorite to win was a magnificent horse named So You Think.  A week and a half before the Melbourne Cup, I watched him easily win the Cox Plate race (a much shorter race). His trainer Bart Cummings is a legend in Australian horse racing having won 14 Melbourne Cups.  He is 82 and is training two of his rather fetching grandsons to carry on his legacy, but has no plans to retire any time soon.  In an interview; in typical grumpy, wise old man words; he described his relationship with them as “If you spoil a horse you ruin it.” Sadly, So You Think placed, but did not win due to the fact that longer races are not his strongest.

So You Think

Bart Cummings (His eyebrows are legendary too)

I bet on three horses to go either way, meaning to win or place.  I chose So You Think, Americain (because of the name of course) and Harry Tweed.  Americain was the victor (obviously) and So You Think placed and as a result I won $60.  Not too bad for my first time betting more than $10. 

Amercain