Everyone wins in strongest ever Melbourne Cup - the lucky dip that stops a nation

RICHARD HINDS: THIS is the best Melbourne Cup field since ... forever. Which, for the once a year punter, is a mixed blessing.

THIS is the best Melbourne Cup field since ... forever. Which, for the once a year punter, is a mixed blessing.

Parochial hearts can swell with pride when we consider how a modest midweek handicap has grown into a genuinely world class event. Unlike those local golf tournaments, where the appearance of a few local stars and a couple of big money imports conceals the lack of depth.

We can have our slightly insecure egos massaged by Brown Panther's owner and breeder Michael Owen who has played in World Cups and the Champions League. Yet who concedes the Melbourne Cup is the one event where he is happy to merely compete.

We can tug-forelock to the Sheikhs and Princesses whose expensively bred thoroughbreds have flown here in more comfort than you enjoy on the family trip to Bali. All the while hoping Queen Gai and her favourite Fiorente win turf's Game of Thrones.

Gai Waterhouse at Flemington track work for Fiorente.

Alternatively, we can hope Dear Demi wins for Singo in the expectation he will shout the track. Which would, for those still not sold on the race's transition to "World Series Staying", put the Oi Oi Oi back in the cup.

We can thumb through a field that contains such an incredible array of richly bred and superbly performed equine talent and conclude - without being the least bit facetious - that Phil ''The Power'' Taylor has more chance of picking a winner than Richie Callander. Stick the form guide on the dart board.

With a 24 horse field with vastly varying form, uncertainty about who would stay the distance and the other customary variables, it has never been easy to pick a Melbourne Cup winner. But the more the field improves, the harder it gets.

When it doubt, you could always back Bart. But Precedence was excluded because he was 25th in the ballot. Which seemed like a nightclub bouncer keeping Beyonce outside the rope.

So now, when in doubt, back Lloyd Williams. The billionaire businessman operates not so much a stable as a small racing nation.

Brown Panther, ridden by Richard Kingslake in trackwork.

The great Australian dream used to be owning a Melbourne Cup runner. But not for the Williams the plebeian thought of having a runner once every blue moon. Williamsylvania has produced six Melbourne Cup runners including last year's winner Green Moon and - quite possibly - this year's winner Sea Moon.

Red Cadeaux's English trainer Ed Dunlop claimed this would allow Williams to "boss this race". At the very least, he has swamped it. Given the overseas assault you can't begrudge Williams playing his numbers game. But can your heart be warmed by it?

Of slightly consolation to the ink-thumbed wretch poring over the form is that the foreign raiders keep coming back or have a warm-up race. We've seen Dunaden win and Red Cadeaux finish second in 2011, the battered bruised Mt Athos finish an unlucky fifth last year, Dandino run impressively in the Caulfield Cup and Ruscello win the Lexus Stakes.

Is seeing believing? Or do we listen to the coat-tuggers trying to tell us the unsighted Voleuse de Coeurs is better than the lot? Or was the two-time winning trainer Dermot Weld right when he said Voleuse de Coeurs - taken from his stable by the Irish stayer's new owners and given to local trainer Michael Moroney - was not ready to win this year?

Cup runner Voleuse de Coeurs and Kate Upton become instant friends at a preview shoot for Emirates Melbourne Cup Day at Newminster Stables Werribee Racecourse. Photo: David Caird

In this lottery of a race, perhaps now we should draw on the recent history created by the internationals. We should remember the story of how in 1993, the former Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock asked from Washington where he was the Australian ambassador, what Weld had said about his runner Vintage Crop.

"Dermot says he can't win," was the reply.

"Double my bet," said Peacock, a well-connected racegoer.

Vintage Crop ploughed his way to victory. The Melbourne Cup was never the same, but some things never change.

Even if Weld no longer trains Voleuse de Coeurs, the canny Irish trainer's denial is good enough for me. I'll be aiming for No. 17 with my dart.