A winner!!

Image taken from http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=321539&clid=&channel=&title=Diva+dashes+to+third+Cup+win (is not my own!!)

Guess who placed a bet on Makybe Diva in the Melbourne Cup?? Apart from the 10 million other people. Yes, it was I. And, though relatively meagre, I came home with more money on me, and alcohol in me, than when I left home this morning. I had no faith that she'd win the race, but thought that if she did smash a Melbourne Cup record (three straight wins in three straight years, plus carrying more weight than a mare has ever won with, AND being fairly old: read that as odds against the Diva) then I wanted to be a part of it. Reading back on that, it sounds like I may know some stuff about the horses, but I'm just repeating what a work colleague (a horse and dog racing fanatic) explained to me. The once a year gamble is always a joy - dress up, eat great food and drink copious amounts of champagne, pause for about five minutes to watch a race that I can make no sense of (a bunch of little men on horses running around a track, all looking the same, with another little man screaming about which horse is coming where, and that isn't audible over the screams of all the people around you who seem to think that the louder they shout (in Townsville), the better chance the horse will have of telepathically interpreting said screams (in Melbourne) and decide that instead of the Sunday stroll they seem to be taking, this is a race that they must WIN and then move faster; and then at the end of the race, everyone says simultaneously, "who won?"). Anyway, back to work tomorrow. So I have about 13 hours to sober up!! Anyone care to give me a foot massage??