So last night at Manning Memorial we had the annual Melbourne Cup Calcutta night, the greatest of all the Melbourne Cup Calcuttas in Perth under the care of David ‘Boof’ McLlheney and John Capper, and with yours truly scrunching tickets and living up to my Club Person of the Year title, while Darren McAullay helmed the microphone with Tim Walker as MCs, the night went off like a frog in a sock as every single ticket was sold, the crowd was well up on last year, and we finished with a record pool total of $49,775, well up on last year’s total of $43,550 with the same total of 23 horses, and were it not for Athabascan being scratched on Monday evening, we’d have broken the $50,000 barrier.

So that leads me to the next part – For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of a Calcutta, all of the horses are first drawn and assigned to the lucky punters, then they go to auction, where the drawers have the right to buy their own horse at half the price that it goes for at auction.

Now, the lightweight roughie Knight’s Choice was drawn by a syndicate of 10 mates under the name Pos, one them being Subiaco league footballer & racing broadcaster Rylie Morgan, and when it went to bidding the horse didn’t get much interest, so the crew bought their own horse for $300, in effect paying $150 to get a runner in the Cup.

AAAAAAND, come Race 7 at Flemington, Knight’s Choice, ridden by the singing hoop Robbie Dolan, wins the Cup by a nose at 61/1… and he was 268/1 on Betfair.

And now the grand finale to this story – With the pool at $49,775, the winner’s share is automatically 60% of the pool, which made the 2024 winner’s share a record $29,865.

Yes, those fellas had a $29,865 return, from what was effectively a $150 bet, although if you subtract the $150 they paid it’s $29,715.

You work that out, they’ve damn near pulled the equivalent of putting $150 on a 198/1 shot, or some no-hope 10-leg multi, and WON.

Another funny part about that draw – Rylie has played WAFL league football for Subiaco, and the bloke who Macca called up to draw the horses this year was none other than newly appointed South Fremantle coach (and former captain) Craig White…. the very same Souths who absolutely loathe Subiaco.

Yes, South Fremantle have given Subiaco 3 premierships in the last decade, and now they’ve given them a Manning Bowling Club Calcutta.