The Melbourne Cup

So it seems that the first Tuesday in November consists of more than just a holiday for Victorian's to get drunk and/or lament a return to work on Wednesday. In a 'race that stops the nation' horses mounted by midgets compete to circle a 2 mile track in effort to avert a new career at the glue factory. Beyond the lucrative prizemoney, garish fashions and pissed up office workers looking for a root, horse racing exacts a mostly unreported toll on its principal participants:

AP finds 5,000 horse deaths since ’03
By Associated Press

Monday, June 16, 2008

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. reported more than three horse deaths a day last year and 5,000 since 2003, and the vast majority were put down after suffering devastating injuries on the track, according to an Associated Press survey. Countless other deaths went unreported because of lax record keeping, the AP found in the broadest such review to date.

Here's hoping to an (equine) accident-free race. As to the midgets...

I wish them all the best in event of acquiring a new profession: