How much food does a horse eat?

I have no idea and suspect it varies as much among horses as it does among humans or cats or any other living thing.

There was "that horse race" yesterday. You know the one I mean - the one run on the first Tuesday in November. It is the one which (supposedly) "stops the nation". 

I was busy doing something else (work) and did not even think about it until I saw it mentioned on the news service in the evening. It is just as well I did not think about it. I think I would have been even more infuriated by the waste of money.

Just prior to the story about the race came the news that there had been yet another rate rise by our Reserve Bank. I had thought about that one. The rise was expected but it is something that is going to cause even more stress for people with a mortgage. There are other people it will also affect in negative ways.

And I thought of someone I know who told recently told me, "I can't get a mortgage loan from the bank because they say I couldn't afford to repay it but I am paying much more in rent than I would have to pay in order to pay off the loan."  There is something wrong with that. 

I looked at the "fashion parade" which is apparently as much part of the horse race as the races themselves and felt more than a little uncomfortable. Some of these people will have spent for more on their outfits for a day than others can spend on food for a family in months. The amount of money spent on that one day is probably more than I can comprehend. It is certainly more than I will ever own. The one big race alone apparently has a prize of $4m. Why? People drank champagne and more. They no doubt ate fancy little pieces of "finger food" and more. The cost was...let's just say far higher than I would contemplate spending to feed myself for much longer than a day.

And yes, there were people who gambled and won but many more who gambled and lost.

Afterwards there would have been a mess to clear up. There were the exhausted "catering staff" and the people who picked up the rubbish and took it off.  I wonder how many of them were paid so little they have a struggle to pay the rent and feed their families? How many of them gambled too? How much does a horse really eat?