Like it or not, Melbourne Cup is becoming truly international

My grandfather loved the ponies and owned a number of racehorses. But despite his best efforts in dragging his grandson to racetracks throughout Ontario, the equine gene clearly skipped a couple of generations.

However, I still poke my head in on the Kentucky Derby and show up on occasion at Happy Valley or Sha Tin when someone puts on a well-lubed spread and is generous enough to invite me. On Tuesday, I made nine bets at Happy Valley and sported a perfect record. I lost them all. So there you go, Hong Kong Jockey Club. My contributions won't be enough to fund that third golf course you're building at Kau Sai Chau. But it may buy you a pretty decent pitching wedge for a junior golf programme.

The most intriguing thing about this rare Tuesday meeting at Happy Valley, though, was race number one, the Melbourne Cup, which was run at Flemington racecourse in Melbourne and started at noon Hong Kong time. It was broadcast through a simulcast at Happy Valley as well as off-track betting parlours throughout the SAR with a pretty high turnover.

Well, that was hint number one that this may be a big race. Number two was all the calls from Aussie friends asking me where I was going to watch the race. It's a Tuesday, it's the middle of the day in the middle of the work week and it's, 'what again?' Oh yeah, something called the Melbourne Cup. I was then told that as somebody who attempts to make a living in the world of sports, my ignorance was inexcusable.

So I tuned in because I had no choice. When it comes to sporting tastes, Aussies make the Americans look positively enlightened. Not only are they incurably provincial, they are also stubborn, dogged and louder than a jackhammer in Causeway Bay.

I still get abuse about ignoring Aussie Rules football. Well, I can honestly say, I was glad I watched because I have never seen a horse race or spectacle like this. Over 106,000 crowded into Flemington, many overdressed in the type of garish race-day garb that makes the bizarre outfits worn on the catwalks of Paris and Milan look almost normal.

The race featured 23 horses and once it began it seemed like it would never end. Originally run as a two-mile race, Australia, the most metric-centric country in the world, (even their golf courses are metric, which is an abomination to the game), rounded it off at 3,200 metres back in 1972. Even over that long a distance though, the finish was remarkable, with Delta Blues beating Pop Rock by a nose.