The Guardian | Melbourne Cup 2017: cream of world racing descends on Flemington

From hangovers to foreign raiders, 2017 promises more of the same against the backdrop of stellar Spring racing...

Can Frankie finally do it? Can Aiden O’Brien finally do it? Can Sheikh Mohammed finally do it? Yes, it’s Melbourne Cup time, when the land down under goes over the top for a horse race and when the world’s racing elite ply their annual quest, before going home wondering what the hell happened, again. This is that peculiar Australian festival of wanton abandon to the punt and the plonk; a hangover from another era, that gives annual licence to a national hangover. No other national event can so conjure Australia’s historic and reckless will to party.

ABC Sport: 'The Everest'... peaking too soon?

The marketing maxim is any publicity is good publicity. But the brains-trust at Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club (ATC) must be concerned at the mixed reaction to yesterday's bombshell announcement that Sydney will stage the Australia's richest-ever horse race in the middle of Melbourne's marquee Spring Racing Carnival.

... read more of our story at ABC Sport Online

Edgar Britt (1913-2017)

One of the first of many Australian jockeys who came to ride in Britain after World War II, Edgar Clive Britt rode his first winner at Canterbury, in Sydney in 1930, before riding for the Maharajah of Baroda in India for a decade from 1935. Britt moved to Britain to ride for the Maharajah, when his horses were trained by Sam Armstrong, winning the Cesarewitch Handicap on Kerry Piper and the substitute Manchester November Handicap on Oatflake in his first season in England. The Maharajah's Sayajirao provided his first classic winner in 1947 in the Irish Derby and St. Leger. In 1948 Britt lost the retainer with the owner, but found a job with Marcus Marsh and when Harry Carr broke a leg, Britt came in for a number of rides for Cecil Boyd-Rochfort's yard, winning the St. Leger on Black Tarquin. He rode Musidora to win the 1949 1,000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks, Frieze (horse) in the 1952 Oaks, Nearula in the 1953 2,000 Guineas and Honeylight in the 1956 1,000 Guineas, all for Charles Elsey's stable. Britt retired in 1959 and returned to Australia.

On 10 June 2004, aged 90, Britt was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to horse racing as a jockey, commentator and journalist. and was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in the same year. Britt died on 28 January 2017, aged 103. -- Wikipedia

• Edgar Britt, jockey who was 'one of Australia's treasures', Malcolm Brown, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 February 2017