Melbourne Cup

Dig this. Do you know of any other country that celebrates a horse race as a public holiday? Australia it is! Melbourne Cup is the most famous horse race in Australia that happens every first Tuesday of November. It is so much celebrated that pretty much all companies shut down for half a day to watch and bet on the horse race…not to mention, the city of Melbourne declares it a public holiday and everyone gets a day off. They call it, “the race which stops a nation” for a horse race that runs for about 3 minutes (3200m track). It is similar to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs where people dress up to see the race. Of course, there are other smaller horse races during the day which then leads to the main event.

So since most companies are half day on Nov 1^st, I did not have any interviews scheduled. I went down to a local pub around Norton St appropriately called “Nortons on Norton” – very original! The favorite horse this year is Makybe Diva (pronounced Makaibe Diva). For the past two years, the horse has won the most prestigious cup. A three-peat has never been done before. The main race starts at three and a couple of the guys in the pub told me to bet on a horse. So I did. I made a bet on another horse (Railings) that has had a good record from its last four races (I believe 2111 – 1^st place in its last three races and 2^nd place on its 4^th race). I betted $2 for Win and $2 for Place/Show (I’ve been to the race tracks in Bay Meadows in San Mateo with my brother Michael and cousin Francis at one point. Funny story. All day we were betting on the horse races. Overall, I lost $2. On the way home, I had a lottery ticket that I needed to get checked. Guess what? I won some money…$2!!! I broke even at the end of the day. Cool!). FYI: “Place” is 2^nd place and “Show” is 3^rd place. Obviously, “Win” is 1^st place.

Unfortunately, my horse did not win…not even on the top three. Makybe Diva set the record for winning three Melbourne Cup back to back to back.

It was a great experience. My first Melbourne Cup. Maybe next year, I’ll get half a day off from work. This year it didn’t matter. I was unemployed anyway.

One other thing, Australia doesn't really celebrate Halloween. It is slowly coming here so I'll miss it for a few years. But anyway, a few teenagers rang our doorbell for some treats. Of course, we didn't really have anything to offer (I said, how about some unagi...that was our dinner that night). But since Michelle and Natasha are on a chocolate-nuts-sweets diet, we had a box of chocolate sitting in the cupboard and we gave it out (I wouldn't really miss it too much. Besides, I had some Tim Tams from Verisign that day).