A Word From Our Sponsor 20/10/2007 In this wonderful age of achievement and human endeavour, instead of horses letting down and going for home in the straight on boring old grass, they can now do it on a wide array of over-sized corporate logos, super imposed onto the track. Even better in widescreen. Actually time to have a bit of a vent. These ads imposed on the track during the running of a race are utterly appalling and seem to be bigger than ever this year. If you are trying to seriously watch a race they throw your perception all out, as the ground changes colour you lose track of the distance between horses and how much momentum a horse has. Plus the horses tend to trip over them. Ad execs around Australia must be walking around with chests puffed out at this grand marketing strategy. Of course, the only wee little flaw is that if you are watching a race, you are actually focussed on the horses, and until the human optic nerve develops the ability to focus at two points at the one time, the ads are nothing but a blur in the background. Just think, in ten years time, we will be able to look back, relive the classic races of the 2007 spring, and remember fondly what logos the sponsor’s were using that year. Disappointingly, the MRC seems to have not capitalised on advertising revenue. Watching the races on Saturday there were distinct sections of blue sky there were totally devoid of corporate logos, even worse, clouds were floating across the course – totally unsponsored. With an election looming the possibilities are endless, imagine the scene, the 24 horses turn for home in the Melbourne Cup, Australia holds it breath and stares collectively at the TV screen, the horses stretch out along the Flemington straight – and gallop over back to back wallpaper images of a madly grinning John Howard.