Tawqeet won the Australia's Caulfield Cup (Group 1, 2400m). The US-bred son of Kingmambo is one of the favorites to capture the historic Melbourne Cup (3200m) on November 6th (7th across the international date line) and complete the Cup double. I watched the race live - on Youbet.com's 4.5" live video display. HRTV carries Australian racing but cut to an infomercial just before the 1am post time.  

Australian racing is fun to watch and to handicap. There are two tracks available nightly to North American bettors. Woodbine hosts the simulcasts so the takeout rate is pretty steep on exotics (28% for trifectas) and the pools are fairly small - $4k  in the WPS and Exacta pools, $7k in the Trifecta pool and $1k in the Quinella pool. Past Performances are free at australianracing.com and through most betting accounts. Brisnet provides the best and include OzeSpeed figures, which are quite useful.

The racing resembles U.S. turf racing with an emphasis on sprints and speed (despite the fact that the most prestigious race in the country is nearly two miles long). Caulfield racetrack has as strong a speed/rail bias as any west coast track. Tawqueet was one of the few horses who one from off the pace yesterday and he did so up the rail.

Horses in Australia race on what would be consider short rest here. 15 of the 18 starters in the Caulfield Cup had run in the last two weeks and three of those had run the week before. Of the three horses coming off a layoff, two were shipping from Japan.

Tawqeet has run five times since August 19th and each race has been spaced about two weeks apart. He'll get 17 days between the two Cups. He is currently 11 to 2 co-favorite with Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats to win at Flemington.

Here is an interesting Melbourne Cup blog.

Here is the official Spring Racing Carnival website.