Fellow travelers, it's almost appropriate that the horse who won this year's Melbourne Cup was called Shocking, because I found the whole exercize shocking in the extreme. In fact it wasn't just shocking. It was appalling!

Firstly, it was extremely elitist, as races invariably are. Finding the fastest horse was highly discriminatory, since horses have a lot more to offer than just speed. And I'm sure they don't judge themselves merely by that criterion. Were their values considered? Of course ...
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