Undoubtedly the highlight of today was the Melbourne Cup race - when we had the pleasure of joining with our table mates to form a syndicate to buy our wooden horse at auction.
Under a cloak of secrecy, we met in Anthea and Dennis’s stateroom to make plans and prepare for the race. We decided on an Italian theme and to dress as Mafiosa since our racing colours were set as orange and black - we all dressed in the same colours. All the men wore black gear, sunglasses, fake moustaches and orange lapel flowers. The ladies dressed in black or orange according to what they had available - and all looked stunning.
It is amazing the things that people will bring on a world cruise - we each brought along the things that we had that we thought could be used to decorate the horse and our own costumes.
A varied array of crepe paper, pipe cleaners, cardboard, coloured paper, paints, sticky tape, blu tack, superglue, sewing equipment, a black curly wig, a large blue bird, fur moustaches and even a hot glue gun were quickly assembled and the working bee was under way with a great spirit of fun and comraderie.
Everyone had an important role - Anthea and Judy took on the role of making the headpieces for the ladies and button holes for the men. Joanne made crepe paper flowers to decorate the stand for the horse and Paula and Ray glued everything into place. ‘Cam boy’, Garry, of course, took on his usual role and videoed all the preparations.
I was nominated as the owner’s representative to be interviewed before the race and so I wrote down our ideas and prepared the speech to introduce our horse and created his biography.
Arnold and Dennis retired to the balcony mumbling something about having to check the quality of a bottle of port - at 10 in the morning??
As the syndicate rep., it was decided that I would wear Ray’s black wig and my black sunhat but I drew the line at wearing a black moustache - I didn’t want to offend the lady who is sprouting the real thing.
In the interview, I had to introduce the horse, discuss his pedigree, racing colours, training schedule and also introduce the jockey.
After much discussion we named our thoroughbred Italian Stallion Semplichimentee Magistrali. Careful thought went into the choice of his name - symbolic of his character - in Italian it means ‘simply masterful’ or ‘the best of the best’, and of course, the most important criteria - we wanted to choose a name that would be hard for the cruise director, Warren, to pronounce as he called the race!!
We had a ton of laughs developing the horse’s bio which you might enjoy.
His pedigree is impressive - sired by previous Cup winner - Knackery Bound - out of a beautiful little chestnut mare - Glue Factory’s Desire. Semplichimentee Magistrali has won three group 1 races in recent times -although they were at the Dapto dogs - winning over $327.50 in prize money to date.
Following in the proud family traditional, he is racing in the famous black and orange silks, first worn by his great grandfather ‘Bumblebee’ - and then his grandfather -‘Bumblebee cold if you don’t put your pants on’. We even attached the infamous Birdie to his back to give him a ‘flying start’ from the gates.
He has had a rigorous training schedule leading up to the race but his preparation wasn’t without incident. He managed to slip out of his halter in the corridor and ventured into the laundry but the atmosphere was a bit heated for his delicate disposition so he beat a hasty retreat.
We would have liked to give him an early morning workout on deck 7 but he couldn’t keep to the left and was almost trampled by a wheelie walker.
He was rested overnight in the rarified atmosphere of Deck 11 - his diet is a closely guarded secret - he has had an intravenous infusion of prune juice and licorice all-sorts - definitely guaranteed to get him running, and give the other horses a run for their money as well.
We don’t like to draw attention to his affliction but I am sure you haven’t failed to observe his missing appendage, his right front leg, which some would see as a disadvantage.
But his looks are deceiving - if he wasn’t white - he would be the dark horse of this year’s Melbourne Cup! Everyone knows that a great horse race is a partnership - a careful merging of horse and jockey - and our jockey is our secret weapon.
Big Dennis is our jockey - and he only has one good leg - and lets face it - between the horse and Dennis we have four good legs - and that’s all that any horse needs to win the Melbourne Cup!!
So the stage was set, preparations were completed, we were dressed and we made a triumphant entrance to the stadium of battle (AKA the Vista Lounge) proudly carrying our Stallion aloft - the other owners and trainers looked enviously towards our great steed. (just picture the entrance of a boxer to a world title fight - you get the idea!!) We made our way to the Owner’s Box and the complimentary champagne.
All the syndicates were introduced and Warren conducted the interviews - we certainly made everyone laugh with our horse’s pedigree.
The four minor races on the card were run - won and lost.
And then....it was time...... the starter’s trumpet blared as we all stood to attention .........and Big Dennis fronted up to the starting gate with the other 5 contenders - Ihavenoidea, Calcutta Chaos, Wicked Woman, Dynamic Duo and One Last Chance.
The gates opened, the dice was thrown and suddenly.......... everything went pear shaped.
It was downhill from there - not to put too fine a point on the situation, we DIDN’T win - in fact we all backed our own horse, which only had the effect of making him the favourite and increasing the prize pool for the other horses.
The pictures tell the tale .... a fun packed afternoon was had by all - and we will front up again for the Mumbai Cup on the 14th June - are you up for the excitement again??
Tomorrow is our first port in India - Cochin - which apparently was named by the Chinese to mean “like China”.
Just off now to drown our sorrows before dinner.
Cheers
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