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."

Melbourne Cup Day

Everyone looks forward to the Melbourne Cup. Even those people who don't like horses. Or betting. Perhaps even the No Pokies party leader, Nick Xenophon secretly, deep down, enjoys the Melbourne Cup. But don't bet on it.

It's the race that stops a nation. Well, we all gawk at the TV for a while hoping that the horse we picked in the sweepstakes, because we have no idea about horse racing, will do well. Most people that would only have one bet per year would place that on the Melbourne Cup.

At work we had two sweepstakes - a five dollar one and a ten dollar one. I entered in both when, out of the 24 horses minus three scratchings, there were only four and five left respectively. For the five dollar sweepstake I was given Efficient and in the ten dollar sweepstake my pick was Blutigeroo. Didn't know if they were a pair of Clydesdale horses or not. I'm just like any other Melbourne Cup punter in that regard.

Well, blown me down. Efficient won the 2007 Melbourne Cup. And I collected $60 for my trouble, less the $15 in the first place, for a tidy 300% profit. Doesn't make up for all the years I haven't won a cracker. I sent a text to Miky and it turned out that she had won $30 at her workplace for a $2 entry. The boy said that he picked horse number 6, Efficient as it turns out, before the race.

I think I'll take my winnings and retire from punting.