King Charles and Queen Camilla likely to favour Melbourne Cup 2024 over Sydney’s The Everest

The odds are shortening that King Charles and Queen Camilla will favour an appearance at Flemington for the race that stop the nation over its Randwick rival.

The Melbourne Cup is saddling up as the odds on favourite for King Charles to visit.

Royal insiders have intimated should the King get his top hat on, it would be at Flemington rather than at Royal Randwick where a race has been named in his honour.

An invitation from the Victoria Racing Club has been sent to King Charles and Queen Camilla, but it all comes down to a matter of timing for the 75-year-old King following his cancer battle.

The newly crowned monarch says his treatment is going well and he wants his schedule “ramped up” for a visit to the Pacific and Australia in October and November.

Queen Camilla and King Charles III at Royal Ascot in the UK. Picture: Justin Tallis

Without a Fight wins the 2023 Melbourne Cup. Picture: Quinn Rooney

The King Charles Stakes is to be run with the world’s richest sprint race, The Everest, in Sydney on October 19.

That may be tad tricky with King Charles to open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa on October 21.

That doesn’t mean Racing New South Wales boss Peter V’landys won’t do whatever it takes to get the royal couple to Royal Randwick.

Royal watchers say the King is now more likely to attend Flemington for Melbourne Cup on Tuesday November 5.

The Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy in Japan as part of the Melbourne Cup Tour. Picture: Supplied

But a three-week or more royal tour for King Charles and Queen Camilla is a long time by any stretch, let alone for a septuagenarian who has just received cancer treatment.

There is certainly some incentive though.

Charles now holds the reins of the late Queen Elizabeth’s stable of thoroughbreds, including the highly-rated Desert Hero, which was pulled out of the Melbourne Cup last year by trainer William Haggas after passing all the quarantine procedures.

If the King does make it to Melbourne he is unlikely to have a star runner in the race with Desert Hero instead set for Royal Ascot which gets underway later this month.

The Victoria Racing Club has confirmed His Majesty has been invited to the Cup Carnival this November.

“The Victoria Racing Club can confirm there is a standing annual invitation to His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen for the Melbourne Cup Carnival,” it said in a statement on Monday.