Racing fever!

We have had a lazy day. The only thing we did was water the plants and that was because we couldn't do it yesterday. Watering plants is not allowed on Mondays?!!! Crikey! It's a good job we are allowed to flush toilets!It may be Bonfire Night at home but down here everything has stopped for the Melbourne Cup! It is always held on the first Tuesday in November. I don't know why they chose a Tuesday, surely a Saturday would have been better. It is known as 'the Race that stops a nation,' so surely productivity must take a dip. They are very proud of it here and obviously reckon it is the greatest horse race in the World. It is certainly one of the richest with the prize money this year topping $6,200,000! (More than 3 and a half million pounds!)This year it is sponsored by Emirates and their tall leggy air hostesses are very noticeable, everywhere, towering over the tiny, squeaky voiced jockeys. There are 24 runners in this flat race...only 6 of the horses are Australian this year. The rest are from the Northern hemisphere. They all paraded through the city of Melbourne yesterday.It's the only time Dulcie has a bet and she has chosen horse number 5 ( her lucky number) Brown Panther. It is owned by ex - England football player Michael Owen. The favourite is horse number 6, Fiorente.Someone I had never heard of from Australian Musical Theatre sang the national Anthem 'Advance Australia Fair'. I guess I am going to have to learn the words for that!The horses race over 3,200 meters.Brown panther took an early lead and Dulcie was not pleased. She didn't want him to lead too early.'He needs to reign him in' she said.As if he could hear her the jockey did and he slipped back to third for much of the race.The race took just over 3 minutes and was won by the favourite Fiorente, an Australian horse trained by Gai Waterhouse. She becomes the first female Australian trainer to win the Melbourne Cup.Of the prize money, the owner(s) get 85%, Gai gets 10% and the jockey 5%...no wonder they are tiny, I bet they can hardly afford food!( We found out later one horse, Verema, broke it's leg at the 2000m mark and had to be destroyed. Shame!)Dulcie won nothing, Brown Panther came 8th, but Australia is delighted a home grown horse was triumphant.I couldn't give two hoots!