Everything you need to know about the Melbourne Cup
AND they’re off! The 157th race that stops the nation will be run in front of 100,000 shivering racegoers huddled under umbrellas in Melbourne (naturally) and in front of a global TV audience of more than 5 million people. We have everything you need to follow the race and have a punt like a pro.
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AND they’re off!
The 157th race that stops the nation will be run in front of 100,000 shivering racegoers huddled under umbrellas in Melbourne (naturally) today and in front of a global TV audience of more than 5 million people.
Favourite Marmelo got up and close for a photo shoot with someone else who knows all about bloodlines — model Paris Jackson, 19.
● Why the A-List celebs are staying at home
The daughter of late pop superstar Michael Jackson went barefoot with the champion racehorse, who she confessed her love for immediately afterwards.
“He’s one of the most handsome horses I’ve ever seen in my life, he’s so beautiful,” she said.
She wasn’t the only fan. Bookies are paying $8 for the galloper to beat a wide open field with Winx’s regular jockey, Hugh Bowman, in the saddle.
► Bookies worried as Marmelo tightens
►Gai Waterhouse backs Lloyd Williams
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Bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse said “$8 is a big price” for the favourite.
However his wife, legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse believes last year’s Cup winner is the horse to beat.
“Lloyd Williams’s horse, Almandin holds the key,’’ Waterhouse said. “Almandin is the class stayer of the race. He is well weighted for a horse that won the Melbourne Cup last year. He is the one we all have to beat.’’
Owner Lloyd Williams is chasing a record-breaking sixth win with the favourite.
In the saddle will be 46-year-old Italian veteran Frankie Dettori, who has won the Arc de Triomphe and 17 English classics but never the Cup, despite 15 attempts.
“I’m running out of years. I’ve got to make every chance count,” Dettori said.
EDITORIAL: Our pick for the race
Across the nation restaurants are already booked out, champagne is on ice and prawns are being draped over the side of cocktail glasses as names are pulled out of hats in countless office sweeps.
Just one of the eight caterers at Flemington will shift about 10,000 oysters, 100,000 party pies and 50,000 glasses of Australian sparkling wine alone over the four days of the carnival.
Punters are expected to lay out a fortune with $90 million being splurged on The Cup with just the TAB in NSW alone.
And hats are back. Milliners say fascinators are out and big brims are back in vogue for the fashionistas strutting their stuff trackside alongside Jackson in the Birdcage.
Flemington’s champagne-fuelled VIP area will host a string of big names in its marquees including Guy Sebastian at Emirates, Lleyton and Bec Hewitt at Kennedy, Models Jennifer Hawkins and Kris Smith and Miss Universe finalist Rachael Finch at Myer and Pia Miller at GH Mumm.
Shawls and brollys will be a must in Melbourne with temperatures in the rain expected to hover at a chilly 14C. Meanwhile 25,000 racegoers at Royal Randwick are expecting 19C and no rain.
On the famous Flemington track the 23 strong field is almost half made up of foreign raiders lured by the $6 million prize money and carnival atmosphere.
Hugo Palmer is one of three trainers attempting to become the first Briton to ever win the Cup with Wall of Fire. “Obviously it would be thrilling to be the first, but I’d just love to win a Melbourne Cup,” he said.
Up against him for that title will be his former mentor Hughie Morrison, who has a strong chance with Marmelo, and Scotsman Iain Jardine who saddles Nakeeta.
The only female jockey, Kathy O’Hara, is the only female jockey and is expected to attract the support of female punters as she attempts to match Michelle Payne’s record winning 2015 run.
“Michelle’s win did inspire me because it showed if there are things that you want, if you keep working hard you can achieve them,” she said.
JACKSON FINDS NEW MANE MAN
IT was love at first sight for Paris Jackson and Melbourne Cup favourite Marmelo.
The model daughter of music legend Michael Jackson was thrilled to get the chance to meet the English five-year-old ahead of today’s big race. Jackson, 19, gently stroked, hugged and whispered to the champion racehorse through the shoot.
Clearly enamoured after their short interaction the special guest of Myer and the VRC joked she’d found her one true love.
“We’re getting married, he’s my new boyfriend,” she says.
“I love horses very much. I spent a good deal of time doing equine therapy in high school, as well as helping my mother around her ranch here and there.”
While Jackson and her two brothers were raised solely by their father at the Neverland Ranch, her mother Debbie Rowe is Australian.
Jackson jetted into town yesterday and is looking forward to attending the race that stops the nation with some friends from her work team as well as a friend from Brisbane.
“I’m so very excited, and also extremely touched by how kind and welcoming everyone has been so far. I was greeted by four very sweet gentlemen outside my hotel who brought me Tim Tams, Vegemite, and a koala plushie,” she says.
GAI: ’SILLY’ THAT RACE STOPS A NATION
AUSTRALIA’S queen of racing, Gai Waterhouse, has rubbished calls to make the Melbourne Cup a national holiday.
“It’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” the horse trainer told reporters at the annual Melbourne Cup parade.
“How do you think the country will stay afloat if everyone wants to take holidays?” Waterhouse’s comments follow calls by six-time Cup winner Lloyd Williams to make the first Tuesday of November a national holiday so all of Australia can enjoy the race.
But according to spectators at yesterday’s parade, most Australian’s just take the day off anyway.
Jenny and Colin McCarthy from Sydney said they hadn’t worked a Melbourne Cup day for more than 30 years, despite it not being a public holiday. “There are a lot of sickies on Melbourne Cup day in Sydney,” Jenny said.
Victorian Racing Minister Martin Pakula embraced the idea.
“The productivity around the country at 3.20pm is not that great anyway,” he said.
“They might as well declare it a holiday.”
SPORTS GURU RIDING HIGH FOR BIG DAY
SEVEN’S doyen of racing Bruce McAvaney has spoken of his love of the Melbourne Cup while also revealing his progress in his battle with leukaemia.
In the lead-up to today’s race, the sports caller said there was nothing like Melbourne’s Cup Carnival, whether you’re a punter, fashion tragic or connection of the horses chasing glory and fame.
“For so many people in this country it’s a dream to have a runner in the Melbourne Cup and then to have a winner, whether you’re a trainer, a jockey or an owner,’’ he said.
“And then you see the reactions of those that win it and what it might mean to them and you talk about a Michelle Payne or a Bart Cummings ... it’s a big prize, not just financially.’’
McAvaney said he was doing “pretty good” in his battle with leukaemia, which he revealed in March. “I’m going well,’’ he said.
“I had a yearly check-up and blood test and results are due shortly but I feel good.
“It’s something I can’t really think about, to be honest ... but I’m feeling healthy and fit and well.”
Originally published as Everything you need to know about the Melbourne Cup