http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/melbourne-cup/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-how-to-reward-a-melb-cup-angel/ By now, you’re sick of the Cup, we’re sick of the Cup. But here’s a doozy of a dilemma regarding the luckiest and most ungrateful punter in Australia. On Tuesday, a friend of The Punch’s went to the TAB to put on his bets. Before leaving, he asked his workmates if he could put any bets on for them. One guy in his 60s gave our friend $6 for a “mystery box trifecta”. That’s when the TAB computer randomly selects three horses and if they run the placings any which way, the bet wins. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-how-to-reward-a-melb-cup-angel/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-how-to-reward-a-melb-cup-angel/#item7074 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-on-open-thread-02-11-20111/ Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-on-open-thread-02-11-20111/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-on-open-thread-02-11-20111/#item7051 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-cup-runneth-overseas/ Once upon a time, it would have been a huge story for the Melbourne Cup to go to an overseas trainer. Today, after French horse Dunaden nosed out English horse Red Cadeaux in a thrilling finish, exactly the opposite is true. How ironic - in a week when an Australian icon in Qantas has bulldozed a path towards an ostensibly less Australian future - that another Australia icon, the Melbourne Cup, is now as distant from its origins as Qantas is from a dinky-di outback air service. Dunaden prevailed in the narrowest of narrow finishes and as ever, provided a great story. The horse’s jockey, Christophe Lemaire, flew out just yesterday after local jock Craig Williams had an appeal against a suspension dismissed. In a further irony, his arrival was delayed by the Qantas shutdown. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-cup-runneth-overseas/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-cup-runneth-overseas/#item7050 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australias-bitchiest-melbourne-cup-form-guide/ It’s on again. The Melbourne Cup. The race that stops the nation. Or at least, the race that stops the nation working. This year’s Cup is like no other. Well might we say “stop the boats” as refugees seek asylum on our shores, but maybe we’d do better to stop the planes. This year, more foreign raiders than ever before are trying to steal our riches and destroy our way of life. It’s just not horse racing. So who’s going to win? The Punch proudly presents Australia’s most devastatingly honest and accurate form guide to help you decide for yourself. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Behind the picture http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australias-bitchiest-melbourne-cup-form-guide/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australias-bitchiest-melbourne-cup-form-guide/#item7035 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/make-melbourne-cup-day-a-national-public-holiday/ On the first Tuesday of November, around three-ish, every fair-dinkum Australian gathers round for “The Race That Stops the Nation”. They show it in pubs, clubs, old-folks homes and school class-rooms. TABs fill up with people who couldn’t tell you the difference between a trifecta and a trilby, having their one bet for the year. Suddenly you find yourself surrounded by racing experts who know all about form, breeding, lead-ups and how the raiders can’t handle the hard Aussie tracks. In workplaces right around the country, people chuck in for $2 sweeps and agonise about drawing the 200-1 outsider with a name they can’t pronounce. And right around the country, in every state bar Victoria, work shuts down at 12. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/make-melbourne-cup-day-a-national-public-holiday/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/make-melbourne-cup-day-a-national-public-holiday/#item7028 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-im-boycotting-the-punting-slaughterhouse/ Tom Waterhouse has driven me to this. The scion of the Waterhouse racing family appearing far too often on my television to declare that while he possessed no actual talent he would happily part me with my money was – as they say – the last straw. Watching the Wallabies get smashed by the Kiwis in the World Cup was hard enough without watching Waterhouse continually pop up on my screen asking for cash like some transient beggar. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-im-boycotting-the-punting-slaughterhouse/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-im-boycotting-the-punting-slaughterhouse/#item7043 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-ugly-truth-of-spring-racing/ Here we go again – time to dig out the fascinator, grab a six-pack of Bacardi Breezers and wobble off on impractically high heels to Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival. At any other time of the year, the races are likely to be associated with dodgy bookies, the barbarism of jumps racing and problem gambling. Around this time, however, we start referring to it as the “sport of kings”, an elite, glamorous cultural event. But how glamorous is it really when, for every one expensively-preened Fashions on the Field entrant, there are five young men wearing that consistently hilarious combination of tux and Aussie flag boxers? You can bet that while Lillian Frank or Peter Jago praise the young ladies present for returning to the modest and elegant trends of the 1920s, most people won’t go home without seeing at least a dozen women clutching a pair of vomit-speckled stilettos. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-ugly-truth-of-spring-racing/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-ugly-truth-of-spring-racing/#item7027 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Best-of-the-breast-as-the-spring-carnal-kicks-off/ Something’s in the air and it’s not just a truckload of pollen. National stockpiles of Zyrtec, Tuscan Tan and ostrich feathers are all being hammered relentlessly. The Spring Racing Carnival is upon us. Originally a celebration of the finest in equine flesh, the event has diversified into an exposition of both equine and female flesh. Like musk sticks or anchovies, etymology either does it for you or it doesn’t. I would be happy to see the recipe for musk sticks go up in flames, but I do dig a bit of etymology. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Best-of-the-breast-as-the-spring-carnal-kicks-off/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Best-of-the-breast-as-the-spring-carnal-kicks-off/#item7019 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/on-cup-day-think-about-the-jockeys-that-arent-there/ As you check the form for today’s Melbourne Cup, spare a thought for some of the jockeys who won’t be taking their place in the field. They all have great experience, have shown extreme courage under pressure and a determination to succeed that does their profession proud. Sadly they are also among the scores jockeys who suffer career-ending injuries every year. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/on-cup-day-think-about-the-jockeys-that-arent-there/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/on-cup-day-think-about-the-jockeys-that-arent-there/#item4382 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind? http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cup-form-guide-our-summer-of-english-pain-begins/ A great editor once told me to “back the story” when punting on the Melbourne Cup. Wishful thinking, no doubt, but he honestly believed that the horse with the best story often won. Of course, like all punting theories, this one is complete rubbish. If my mate the editor was right, topical tip Alcopop would have won in a canter last year, what with Kevin Rudd’s obsession with taxing said bevvies. Thong Classic (13th in 2002) and Maythehorsebewithu (5th in 2001) would also both have won, creating heaven for headline-writers. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cup-form-guide-our-summer-of-english-pain-begins/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cup-form-guide-our-summer-of-english-pain-begins/#item4367 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Well damn. At First Sight didn’t win. Neither did Americain. However, we can all be winners if you share with us some of your wit and pith in our Wednesday caption competition. This week featuring the photo finish of photo finishes. Winners will be displayed and showered with accolades in tomorrow’s Open Thread. It’s Hump Day, folks. What’s on your mind?