Money And Egos

Okay so I made a few cryptic comments about Tuesday's Melbourne Cup in the immediate preceding post.

This race is now among the top half dozen international big money horse races around the world. It used to be about time and craft - old school local Australian horsemen the likes of Tommy Woodcock and T.J. Smith and Bart Cummings would employ their highly individual craft over a lot of time, and develop a horse slowly into the conditioned and skilled athlete that would conquer the test of distance and stamina that the Melbourne Cup race is.

Those of you (those of us!) who focus a lot on Wall Street and its big money symbolism, may find it a little difficult to accept what I'm about to say next - the big money is in places like Melbourne and Sydney, and occasionally in Fremantle and Perth, also Hong Kong, and other odd, and very little-known small Austrian and Bavarian towns and seaside resorts in places like Sardinia...

Half Moon Street - a movie set among the wealthy
elites in London, based on a book by Louie Theroux's dad.
Can't remember what it's about, nor anything about it, other
than that the actor Nadim Sawalha's birthday, is 9/11.

You see, it is a little understand fact, that the prize-money for European and especially English horse racing is miniscule compared with what is standard money here in Australia.

On the other hand, the mega-wealthy elites live in or around the London-Paris-New York 'orbit.' They, can afford to race horse flesh. But their money never flows into the economies they live off, and they are not generous enough to put up stakes moneys themselves for their peers to compete for. Consequently, the thoroughbred industry in England is about breeding and selling, and trophies, but not about prize money as such.

So the consequence of very large money floating around various segments in the economies of Hong Kong and Sydney and Melbourne has today seen the situation that there is only one Australian-bred horse in this year's Melbourne Cup.

Remembering that I accused the European owners and trainers of being rather cynical about their charges, I envisage this year's Melbourne Cup as being one in which certain horses, whose true abilities are known to their connections (owners and trainers and jockeys) but almost no one else - will suddenly be asked to show their abilities, and they will be ridden very very vigorously in order to get these efforts from the animals.

And so the Melbourne Cup has changed as a race for all time, or at least, for a long time to come so long as the money aspect remains the way it is.

And this is not even to say these owners are actually racing because they need money! No, not at all! They do what they do because they are what they are...

Wise guys

The Melbourne Cup is now a tale of money and power and egos.

These things are all very interesting to watch.

They are not heart-warming to me in the way they once were. I would be shocked and surprised, more than pleasantly, if T.J. Smith's daughter could win this year's race with one of her horses.

Rarely will you ever get to see such big money and such huge egos gather all the in the same place at the same time. Certainly not publicly. Not even at Bohemian Grove; which is not public in any case.

Oh yes. If you think you are interested in big money you cannot miss this show. Trust me. I'll tell you afterwards what you were looking at.

Now remember this though - it still is the case that if you walk onto an Australian race track, everyone is equal, king, prince, queen, pauper, stable-hand, road-sweeper. And that is only because everyone is polite to everyone else, regardless of any other thing. The etiquette is that Australian race track goers, are polite. It is the only place that Australians behave themselves as a rule. Yes, there will be plenty of drunks and people falling over later on in the day. But that is after the fact, and after the main events. The fact is, they are polite, and they mean to be polite. It's an interesting social phenomenon.