"Which one, the one in front of me taking my photo on his mobile, or the one on my left holding my reins?"

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

I had not the first clue what was going on here, but I did some post-shooting Googling based on the cloth draped over my 4 legged friend here. (A sight that is not at all common in Pyrmont, may I add.)

Apparently this was a lunch for an outfit called YPR, Young Professionals In Racing. It was a lunch (at $190 per head) "on the eve of The Championships Day 1, traditionally known as Derby Day and enjoy a three course lunch at an exclusive waterfront venue, with young, like-minded racing enthusiasts!"

OK, that rules me out on two counts, I imagine.

The lunch seemed to revolve around two themes, one of which is fashion (which would explain the blue screen and "over the shoulder" pose in the background) and one of which is gambling. Which I have mixed feelings about, especially online gambling.

Make no mistake, I'm not a naive idiot and I know that betting and horse racing go together like vampires and blood but there is a difference between on course betting (which is part of the experience of going to the races, or so I would imagine, not yet having been to one myself), and just being able to login and sit there clicking buttons with glazed eyes as your family's housekeeping money evaporates.

On the one hand I feel that people should be free to do what they wish to provided it doesn't harm others, and on the other hand excessive gambling does seem to do a lot of harm. I don't have any objection to gambling but it does seem to be tending towards a cancer on society so when I see something like this I do tend to wince a little bit.

According to the website that I found the horse in question is Takeover Target (aka "Archie"), who was born in 1999 and was retired in 2009 after an injury to one of his hind legs. (I'm fairly sure that's him based on other pictures that I've found.) He is now in retirement up in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales so this must have been a fairly long trip for him. The owners won't be making any further money out of him except perhaps for appearances like this since he's a gelding and obviously can't be used for breeding. However considering that he cost his owner $1375 and won over $6 million in prize money, I think he's entitled to a regular supply of oats and a paddock to run in for as long as he plans to live.