Cleaver's Games: March 15

A rat stared down one of our party as he tried to enter his apartment yesterday.

The journalist - not a small man - stopped. The rat kept coming, eventually leaving with a contemptuous sneer etched upon its face.

Depending upon the hour of the re-telling, the rodent was either the size of a hamster or the size of Guam.So tension is high among the APN team.

Some are unwilling to leave their rooms unless in pairs.We are in what Commonwealth Games organisers would call lock-down mode.

Across town Village officials were left contemplating an equally disturbing security breach.

Four youths from the neighbouring juvenile detention centre scaled the fence that separates the two compounds and went for a mad sprint among some of the world's elite athletes, some of whom could catch them.

They stopped the clock for the 300m dash at around 40 seconds.

Community Services Minister Sheryll Garbutt has demanded a full report into the escape. She is quite welcome to this one.

The rest of the drama yesterday took place at Moonee Valley, that quirky racetrack just a javelin throw from the Village.

Here Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star fought out an epic WS Cox Plate in 1986 with Bonecrusher triumphing by a nose.

It was here Sunline won the second of her two Cox Plates in 2000 by an astonishing seven lengths.

And it was here that Hamish Carter was named New Zealand flagbearer for tonight's opening ceremony, an honour he described as the highlight of his career.

It was a star-studded evening. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa made a non-singing appearance while some bloke called Greggo did.

There was also an inspirational film clip played over soaring music that had a little trouble getting out of the gates.

What we instead got at the start was Race One from Canterbury, which unfortunately for punters paid no third dividend.

When the right clip went into the can, however, it struck all the right notes with numerous flashbacks to glories past.

For the first time it really feels like there is an event going on here now - whether the rats like it or not.