THE MELBOURNE CUP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 55

THE MELBOURNE CUP.

As each November comes round the Australian nation /rives iteelf up enthusiastically to the discussion of horse-racing. Men who iiave no practical knowledge of the subject wrangle with others equally well informed about the chances of horses that neither of them have ever seen. Mysterious hints, given by tipstere, are backed with a confidence that to the initiated is simply appalling 1 . All who caii, and many "who cannot, afford it aTo off to the Cup, the three minutes and a.-nalf of excitement apparently compeneating them for a heavy outlay in expenses, a vast amount of hard work in travelling, and discomfort in living 1 in overcrowded hotels. A sort of dementia equestriana (to coin an expression) seeme to obsess the T-eople. Regarded in one li«h* (»»ys the Town and Country Journal), the Cup may be considtered as a national safety valve for- excitement, it being io Australians much what the Presidential ©lection is to Americans, the annual revolution to & South American, or a, good ball fight to a Spaniard. This cravinjr for excitement is possibly traceable to the/ days when man, •lightly advanced above the apes, lived in oaves in the hillsides, and beat the sabretoothed tiger by a half-length in the Taco for -the mouth of the burrow ; or to the later days when war .ruled the land, and fhe Danes swept down and cleared all the movables off the farm of the hunted Englishman; or to the later dajs still, when the raiders from the Highlands swept the Lowlands bare, and retreated with their «poil. There has always been excitement in the life of Englishmen and their descendants, and now that a dull routine of hard work has taken possession of the race, the necessity for an occasional stirring 1 up of the pulses becomes greater than ever. The fact of being able to risk some money on it gives to a horse race a personal element that is lacking in any other sport. Thus the Melbourne Cup flourishes, while in other games the public fancy ebbs and flows. It is the element of personal excitement derivable from betting that makes the turf what it is; for. to quote the American humourist, Mr Dooley. "If it wasn't for the betting there would > be more people at one of Ibsen's plays than at a horse race."