Melbourne Cup

Yesterday I had a day off from work because of a HORSE RACE!  The entire city had a public holiday for this race.  Trust me I'm NOT complaining.

Tracy from work invited me to her place for a BBQ to celebrate Melbourne Cup.  Another friend had already tried to convince me to go to the actual race course (which I ride past on my bike every day) but I wasn't all that interested in wearing a dress, heals, and a hat; and watch people get totally drunk all day long.  I've heard how messy it can get there and after I looked at some of the photos in the paper this morning I'm glad I didn't go.

Anyhow, back to Tracy and her BBQ.  I arrived about 12:30 and was warmly greeted by her friends and family.  Tracy had put out an amazing spread and I don't think I'll have to eat for the next week or so.  While at the BBQ people were talking about making bets on the horses. The easiest way to do it was to join the "sweep" .  For a dollar or two (depending on the sweep) you just add your name to the list.  Since there were 24 horses (then 23 since one horse was a scratch) 23 people could go into each sweep.  Once a sweep is filled numbers are randomly drawn and each person is assigned a number which correlates to a horse.  If you end up with the number of the winning horse (or the horse that comes in second or third) you win some of the pot.  Tracy had four of these sweeps on the go so I joined all four at $2, $2, $1, and $1.  I didn't get any horses I would have chosen and so none of my horses placed.  But..... there was one small prize for having the last place horse and I won that on one of my sweeps.  So at this point I'm down five dollars.

Another type of betting that was going on was the official betting.  In Victoria there are places all over the state that you can make bets at.  Most of the parents were letting their kids make a bet on a horse or two.  I figured I should give it a go too so I headed to the local TAB with one of the dad's and placed my bets.  The horse name I liked best was called "Shocking" because that's one word I hear a lot around my school particularly when they are talking about what a student did (or didn't do).  I bet on it to place or win, along with four other horses.  I bet a total of $10 (yah I know not a big spender) and waited for the race to begin.

At 3:00 pm the race was on.  Everyone in the house gathered around the tv.  The race itself only lasted a minute or two (maybe three?) and in the end SHOCKING WON!  I was pretty excited because I had picked that horse.  As it turned out another one of the horses I picked came in third place too.  I knew I had won some money but I had no idea how much.

Once the race was over everyone went back to doing what they were doing before, eating, drinking, chatting etc..  There were still more races but no one really paid any attention to them.

When it was time to go home Tracy dropped me back at the station.  My train and tram connections were great and I was almost home in no time.  I decided that I wanted to check my TAB ticket to see how much money I had won with my win and my third place.  I got off the tram one stop early and headed to TAB.  My winning ticket ended up being worth $21.70 so I was up $11.70 on my original investment of $10.  Not bad I thought to myself.  With the $5 loss in the sweeps at Tracy's and the $11.70 win through the official bet, I was up $6.70.

Things only got better when I went to work today.  At work on Monday we had the opportunity to join in sweeps - 50 cents, $1, and $2.  I joined all three of them.  I ended being drawn the third place horse in the $2 sweep so I was given $8.  Yah, more money.  So let's see, I was up $6.70, then I won $8 from work but I had invested $3.50 so in the end I won $11.20 after covering all my wages.   Not bad for a non gambler betting on her first (and possibly only) Melbourne Cup.

But the best part of all was.... I HAD A DAY OFF FROM WORK!!!