The first Tuesday in November every year for any Australian is special and that was very much the scenario for the handfull present here in Singapore for this week’s Barclays Singapore Open.

Today is Melbourne Cup day!

And after a little running around and surfing the net I managed to join three other Aussies here at the Sentosa Resort course to watch live coverage of the 152nd running of a ‘Race that stops a nation’.

In this case, it was race that stopped a practice session ahead of this week’s $US 6m co-sanctioned event.

Joining me in watching Green Moon race to victory at the Flemington track in Melbourne was golfer Scott Barr, caddy Kyle Roach and Mark Gardner, who for many years has provided the yardage books for players.

Here’s a couple of photographs from the humble but very important 5-minute occasion.

Aussies Mark Gardner (standing), Kyle Roach (blue shirt) and Scott Barr watching coverage of the 2012 Melbourne Cup, (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)