Tuesday, November 11, 2008

What's In A Name - Melbourne Cup?

The Melbourne Cup has been run and won. And lost, and lost, and lost.... Every year the office runs a sweepstake or two. That means that people pay $5 or $10 with their names put into a hat, figuratively speaking, and the names of the horses running are put into another hat. One by one the names of a horse and the person are drawn. Then a list is drawn up and everyone gets excited about the race because they are backing a horse and only luck plays a part in who wins. The race winner collects most of the booty, about half of the winners' amount goes to second and then half of that for third. Last place gets their money back. Last year I won and picked up some $65 for my $5 outlay.

The way the names of the horses were matched against the people intrigued me. The rather attractive girl who ran the sweep picked Prize Lady as her horse. Hmm. Mad Rush was received by someone who doesn't do things in a mad rush, actually. Gallopin was chosen for a gentleman who has just had surgery for arthritis on his foot and does anything but galloping around the office. Zipping was given to a bloke who does zip around for his lunchtime walk.

Of course I received Profound Beauty, an Irish mare. What does that tell you? I didn't hear her name mentioned much after the race started so there was no barracking along the lines of "Go you little beauty."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Better luck next year. Annette

Iris Flavia said...

Ohweeeee, that sounds British - and like a whole lotta fun, too :-)
Maybe next time do it all as a masked ball, although... nah. The names just so fit!!!! :-)