Why it’s a fair bet King Charles will attend Melbourne Cup in 2024

Nearly 40 years after the then Prince of Wales and Princess Di wowed the crowds at Flemington during their royal tour, it’s likely King Charles will return to the track this year with his new bride.

Britain's Queen Camilla and King Charles III watch the races on the second day of the Royal Ascot horse racing meeting this year. Picture: Justin Tallis

It’s a fair bet King Charles and Queen Camilla will be at the Melbourne Cup next year, nearly 40 years after the then Prince of Wales and Princess Di wowed the adoring crowds.

Diana, the Princess of Wales, conspired with then Foster’s boss John Elliott to fill the Melbourne Cup with the frothy stuff.

The “silly old fogies at the VRC would have none of it,” lamented Elliott, but Di whispered breathily in Charles’ ear.

He later remarked in his speech, after What A Nuisance won on his sore old legs, what a wonderful day it had been for the first Foster’s Melbourne Cup.

But how better it would have been had the cup been “brimming over with Foster’s.” Diana turned to a loudly laughing Elliott and asked him whether he would gives Charles a job in Foster’s marketing department.

Britain's King Charles III and his wife Britain's Queen Camilla ware likely to make an appearance at Flemington in 2024. Picture: Ben Stansall

Elliott said the future king could have a job for life. Now, some 40 years later, the VRC has been in touch with Buckingham Palace in a bid to bring King Charles and Queen Camilla to Flemington for next year’s Melbourne Cup.

Some of the players in those carefree days in 1985 have gone.

Princess Di died in a car crash in Paris, pursued by paparazzi, while John Elliott died several years ago after a sensational reversal of fortune for the man who tried to Fosterise the world.”

The odds are better than even money that King Charles and Camilla and will be at the Cup on November 5 next year.

Page 13 has been studying the form. Charles is to open CHOGM, the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting in Samoa on October 21.

Royal watchers think it’s a near certainty that the royal progress will then take in New Zealand and Australia.

Here’s another tip.

John Elliott and Princess Diana at the Melbourne Cup in 1985.

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 this year by trainer William Haggas after passing all the quarantine procedures.

The trainer said it had been decided to spell the horse, but it could be a runner in the future. This has got Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles excited as he takes in Melbourne’s nightlife, although the food critic, who is knocking around with Australian chef and bestie Scott Pickett, says his days of hanging out at South Yarra’s still edgy Revolver are long gone.

While the Melbourne Cup next year remains the favourite in the race to invite the royals, Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys is having a few million each way.

Diana, Princess of Wales, and Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, share a joke with businessman John Elliott at the 1985 Melbourne Cup during their Royal Tour of Australia.

The entrepreneurial V’Landys is running the King Charles III Stakes at already Royal Randwick on October 12, just in case polo-playing Charles and equally horsey Camilla turn up in Australia before CHOGM in Samoa.

“It’s an exact replica of the crown,” boasts V’Landys of the trophy he has had flashed up for the $5 million race.

“I think its actually more expensive than the crown, the way the jeweller has charged me.”

Never at a loss for a line, V’Landys says, “If ever the king loses his crown, we can give him this one.”

Cheeky.

Still, as they always say about Sydney, “it’s how much money you’ve got, while in Melbourne it’s where you went to school.”

V’landys may splash cash, but let’s not forget King Charles is an old Geelong Grammar Timbertop alumni. All hail the king!