Racing's royal rumble erupts on the eve of the great race

HOW did a polite gathering of the Cup's well-to-do connections descend to the trash-talking depths of professional wrestling?

PRINCESS Zahra, the daughter of the Aga Khan, and Sheikh Fahad Al Thani of Qatar were in the room. There was sporting royalty too, the former England striker Michael Owen.

So how did a polite Sunday morning gathering of the well-to-do connections of the Melbourne Cup's international raiders at the Werribee quarantine centre descend to the trash-talking depths of professional wrestling?

Enter Marwan Koukash, owner of the well fancied Mt Athos. A man whose colourful vernacular and industrial sized confidence are not tempered by the blue blooded company he keeps.

Koukash has the streetfighting instincts you might expect of a Palestinian who escaped his strife-torn homeland as a nine year-old. So when he was told Sheikh Fahad, owner of Dunadan, had said "I think we've got Mt Athos covered'', suddenly we had a Birdcage match on our hands.

Marwan Koukash wears the Melbourne Cup as a hat, as you do.

Boldly - and, given he had done the same thing last year, a touch predictably - Koukash declared Mt Athos a certainty. Something that, given the strength and depth of a field containing 14 group one winners, drew disbelieving sniggers from the media pack.

"Most of you are laughing so you must be doubting what we are saying,'' said Koukash. "Well, yes, we will bloody win!''

Princess Zahra, daughter of the Aga Khan, talks about her family's Melbourne Cup hope Verema.

Drawing barrier 22 had caused trainer Luca Cumani to take a cautious approach about Mt Athos's prospects. But it did not daunt the bullish Koukash, who dismissed mere "statistics''. "The reason to me no (Melbourne Cup) winners have come from gate 18 is probably because all the horses who came from that gate are absolute shit,'' he said. Quite.

If Koukash had not already made himself an excellent pantomime villain for those still harbouring resentment about the Melbourne Cup's foreign legion, he was not finished yet. As owner of Salford rugby league club, he said once the Melbourne Cup was on his mantlepiece: "I can achieve my dream in rugby league by stealing your best players.''

Sheikh Fahad Al Thani started all the trouble when he declared Dunaden had Mount Athos' measure.

By then, as villains go, Stuart Broad was starting to look like Duchess Kate. Never mind that Mount Athos is - when Koukash doesn't have the microphone - a sentimental favourite. Both with those who sympathise with his luckless trainer Cumani, and by those who are beguiled by Cumani's daughter Francesca who is being promoted by a TV current affairs show as "the most beautiful woman in racing''.

Which, despite Ms Cumani's obvious advantage in the swimwear section, still seems a bit hard on Makybe Diva and Black Caviar.

But Koukash was not the only villain among the now vast brigade of raiders. Ed Walker is the new Eric Hollies. He might not have bowled Bradman for a duck, but his horse Ruscello put Bart Cummings out of the Melbourne Cup.

Francesca Cumani, or as one TV current affairs show calls her, "the most beautiful woman in racing''.

"I was going to ask Mr Cummings for some advice,'' said Walker, who had been reluctant to run the still raw Ruscello despite winning the Lexus Stakes. "But when I found we'd knocked him out I thought we better not.''

You might include Owen on your list of English villains. If only, after events at Twickenham overnight, his home-bred stayer Brown Panther threatens to inflict yet more humiliation on Australia by becoming the first English horse to win a Melbourne Cup.

Although Owen was disappointingly even-handed. "You Australians come over and beat us in the sprints,'' he said. "We have the edge in the staying races.''

Brown Panther owner and former English Premier League star Michael Owen on Sunday.

But, if Cummings oft-stated loathing of the favours granted the foreign horses might have been hardened by his exclusion, it grow more difficult by the year to bear any resentment. Not merely because the raiders have enriched the race, but because it is impossible to define what a raider is.

Only four of the 24 starters this year are Australian bred. Two of the horses at Werribee, Voleuse De Coeurs and Tres Blue are trained by New Zealander Michael Moroney and Australian Gai Waterhouse who, quite literally, have not placed a hand on their runners.

More of the international horses now choose Australian jockeys. Or, like favourite Fiorente, are ready-to-race imports claimed by Australia with the alacrity England claimed Kevin Pietersen.

So it is getting to the point where the only real raiders are the ones sitting on the roof sipping Pineapple Cruisers. And not even they are Raiders any more.

So forget local interest and sit back and enjoy the amusing braggadocio of Koukash who says he met an executive from Melbourne Cup sponsor Emirates at the races. ''He is the guy who is going to be handing the Cup over the winner,'' he said. ''And that is going to me!''