Cup Day - Party, party, party

Viewed after winning the 2008 Melbourne Cup

What can one say after witnessing one of the most unusual Melbourne Cups in history. The tactics of Irish Trainer Aiden O'Brien fairly backfired, after Septimus and his stablemates, Honolulu & Allessandro Volta ran their legs off in the initial stages of the race and at one stage were several lengths in front of the rest of the field. However, when they turned for home entering the straight they were easily over taken by those coming from behind and ended up at the tail of the field. It was a real thrill to see Viewed win, despite the fact my money was on Bauer who was beaten by the shortest margin possible into second place.

And Bart Cummings winning his 12th Melbourne Cup was heartwarming as well. We all sat on the edges of our seats to watch Bart's reaction to the win, wondering which wonderful understatement he would come up with. He's well known as master of understatement and this time all he said was "That's good, it was a nice win" though he was beaming as he said it, and a little teary eyed.

We spent the day at a Melbourne Cup party with friends - good food, fine ale, excellent company, and high spirits.

As is traditional at this cup day party we photographed everyone wearing the pith helmet, used for the drawing the of the sweep.

Young Sam posing as a reprobate cubist.

Dennis, the winner of the sweep (1st & 2nd prize!) displaying his wealth.

Tony aka "Lucky", who up until this year has won the sweep, expressing himself here in a creative fashion.

Andrew, a fellow racing enthusiast.

His wife Luana

Luana's mum Anna

Ali, who backed Viewed, looking apprehensive - not sure about this pith helmet gig.

Bernie having a good time as usual.

Nani & Robert - down for the day from the country.

Paul, overshadowed, but cheerful all the same.

Brent looking thoughtful - or is he?

Another Paul posing as an intrepid whatever

And finally the remarkable Cheryl wearing her racing outfit

It's not every day that you meet a person like Cheryl. She was amazing, very funny with a razor sharp wit. She gave a captive audience a rundown of her day at the races and won us all over in a flash with her lurid descriptions of the race day crowds. She's a dentist from the Gold Coast, Bernie's son's girlfriend, down from Queensland for the Spring Racing carnival. She and Dan (Bernie's son) had been partying since last Friday and were showing no signs of slowing down that I could see. A rare treat was Cheryl - I do hope I get to meet her again.

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Tomorrow the carnival continues with the Crown Oaks - a race for three year old fillys over 2500 metres.

I am very interested to see how Samantha Miss performs. She is deservedly the favourite, and if she wins will be one of very few favourites to be successful this spring.

Also on the cards tomorrow is the Steve Earle concert at The Forum theatre. I am looking forward to that enormously and interested to hear his reaction to the outcome of the American Presidential Elections. Steve Earle is well known for his leftist views so no doubt he'll be in excellent mood for the show, not that he is a temperamental artist. He always puts on a good show.

I'm delighted, as are many others, with Barack Obama's victory. It seems to bring hope to the world again - a light at the end of the very dark tunnel we've been in since 9/11.