Who Here ‘Viewed’ The Melbourne Cup?

You see what I did there, huh? I am back after a fairly quiet first Tuesday in November (it’s a public holiday down here at Defamer Australia HQ!) and sad to say that I managed to lose $47 yesterday, but what price can you put on equine-related fun?

Bart Cummings’ Ferocious Eyebrows – and the man attached to them – trained winning horse Viewed, making this the 12th Melbourne Cup victory for the 80-year-old racing legend.

The Melbourne Cup has been run and won with the foreign invasion repelled for another year. And who better to do it than the master himself, the man of the magical twirling eyebrows, cup king Bart Cummings?

Fifty years since he saddled his first Melbourne Cup runner, Cummings unleashed Viewed on an unsuspecting audience of Flemington racegoers and casual observers around the country and then stood modest and unassuming in victory to accept the adulation.

Not bad for an 80-year-old.

“I do make it a habit of winning this race, someone told me and I said it’s a good habit to get into,” Cummings said.

“It’s great to see the Aussies succeed.”

Isn’t it just?

In conclusion – screw you, Alessandro Volta, for leading the pack for ages and making me naively think for a moment that I was going to get my money back (even though I should know better) coming in second last. Could have been worse, I suppose. I could have placed money on Gallopin.

MORE: Viewed wins Melbourne Cup , Cummings gets his dozen