Tomorrow is Melbourne Cup Day, known locally as 'The Race That Stops The Nation'. A horse race for which we have a public holiday, and the pinacle of our supposedley world famous spring racing carnival. A swag of international celebrities turn up every year, and national productivity drops to it's second lowest level for the year. (After Xmas)

Many people take a 4 or 5 day weekend to mark the occaision. Today the normally clogged highways were empty in anticipation.

So my question is, have any of you regular folk ever heard of it? Or is it a massive beat up? Do any of you have a holiday for a sporting event? Or are we in Melbourne so obsessed with this sport that we have lost all perspective?

Thoughts?