And what a day it was!

The Melbourne Cup.

Wow.

So Efficient won the day, at odds of $22.70. Went on the outside and blitzed home from the middle of the pack to win by about a head. Incredible, even the jockey was in disbelief. "I just won the Melbourne Cup. It's just... ... ... I just won the Melbourne Cup." That would be a paraphrase of his first words when interviewed while riding down from the finish.

What makes this win even more stunning is that Efficient won the Victoria Derby last year. The last time a horse won the Derby and the Cup in consecutive years like this was in 1930. By Phar Lap.

And like Phar Lap, Efficient is a New Zealand born horse, owned and trained in Australia.

Great stuff.

Sadly though, the day was marred by 3 early scratchings and then 2 injured jockeys after a fall.

What was amusing however is the tie-in with the federal election campaign. Prime Minister John Howard is trailing by 6 points in the poll and mentioned that he was backing Mahler, who ended up in third. The leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd has been very strong in the polls and looks set to win the election on Nov 24. His pick for the race? Efficient.

Granted though, Efficient was not on strong odds to win, while Rudd is. But that just makes the victory that much sweeter doesn't it?


In other news, the Baseball World Cup starts tomorrow, hosted by Chinese Taipei. Best odds would be on Cuba to win this. Afterall, they have 25 gold medals to their name. Next closest is Venezuela with a meager 3. Poor Australia then, to have both in the pool. Oh well, here's looking towards a good tournament.