I love the idea of the champagne cage as a harness, whoever painted that red and white striped horse!
When we did this on our last cruise, it was a 3 day event:
Day 1 - bid on your horse (starting bid was $50 and on our cruise, everyone got theirs for $50)
Day 2 - paint your horse (we didn't know about this and there was a set time the Artist set up paints for decorating, which cut into our dinner reservation)
Day 3 - race the horses
It was fun. I wouldn't have paid too much more, although you have a 1 in 6 chance of winning the race. Needless to say, I didn't win, but it something different to try!