Is excessive gambling a problem for you?

My old boss likes to place a bet. If you couldn't find him in his office, the joke was that he was probably in the Canberra Casino. Some bets came off rather nicely, like the sweet grand he put on Makybe Diva in the Melbourne Cup one year. Some didn't, like the auction bids he put in for one of those tizzed up units from that renovation-obsession show, The Block. Reality television is another obsession too. He once compelled all his staff to submit to being filmed for an audition tape for Australian Survivor. Apparently I was going to be the "new Kimberley", which will mean nothing unless you ever watched the first season of the US version. (He committed the foolish error of giving us the tapes to submit ourselves- I taped Rage over it not long after. VHS cassettes I miss you!)

Anyway, back to the Melbourne Cup. My boss once mentioned to me that he reads the tarot cards to divine his fortunes on the turf. Now, this is a senior partner in a respected law firm. It's a bit like a judge using a Magic 8 Ball to determine someone's guilt (Is the Defendant guilty? You May Rely On It.). Now, I normally don't condone superstition-ery and I certainly wouldn't pay $5.00 per minute for some student with a call-centre job to tell me my numerological destiny. But since I foolishly fritter my money on a few flutters every year (try saying that with a bit in your mouth), and because I find my old boss to be very amusing, I asked el capo for a reading for the upcoming Cup. And because I want everybody I like to be very very rich, I herewith share his predictions:

ok the tarot read is as follows -

I cant tell you the name or the number. But I can tell the winner will be a boy, so scratch out girl horses. I can also tell you it will be a young male horse, this is a very unusual outcome because normally older horses win. There's an indication that the horse has journeyed, so perhaps overseas horse or one that doesn’t live in melb - it might be a NZ horse as well. There's going to be confusion, so something unusual will happen, there might be sudden heavy rain or even a really close finish eg a win in photo with the actually winner not clear until the photo happens.

But yep a young boy horse, so im imagining somewhere in the order of 4 to 5 max, maybe even a 3 year old.

once the list comes out, I should be able to tell you the exact winner, we should get a good return as I think the favourites are old boy horses.

ps the tarot never tells lies so have faith.

And there's an update to the above prediction, which arrived later today:

but there's more - the strange thing is that the horse is a boy, and young, but it has a strong female element. This could mean a feminine name, a female jockey, or pink colour.

Sorry I have to tell you what I see, and I tried to hide this but there's a paradox at play, it's a boy with feminine overtones.

So to all of you chancers out there, do with this information what you will. I give no assurances as to the quality of his readings, I really couldn't tell you how clear his aura is or anything like that. But if everything comes up "slightly feminine boy horses" for you on Tuesday, remember where you got the hot tip.