Why Marmelo’s the mother of all tips

Punters searching for an omen ahead of today’s Melbourne Cup need look no further than the favourite for the great race.

Melbourne Cup starter Marmelo has a rolls in the sand ahead of today’s big race. Picture: AAP

Punters searching for an omen ahead of today’s Melbourne Cup need look no further than ­Marmelo, the favourite for the great race.

The sign is not in the horse’s pedigree, its recent form, or even the star jockey aboard.

It’s in the extraordinary family planning of its part-owner Ozzie Kheir and his wife Linsey.

When Kheir’s first Cup runner, Lucas Cranach, finished third in 2011, Linsey was heavily pregnant with their son Lenni.

Three years later, when Kheir’s part-owned Protectionist stormed home to win, Linsey was two weeks away from giving birth to their daughter Audrey.

This year, it’s the soon-to-be-born Axel, due any day, who’s keeping his mum away from Flemington and Kheir couldn’t be happier.

He has promised the horse’s other owners that if Marmelo takes out the $6.25 million race, he’ll keep the babies coming.

“I’ve made a commitment to the boys that if we win again my wife will be pregnant every year,’’ the Melbourne property developer and nightclub owner told The Australian.

“The deal is they all need to chip in with the private school fees.’’

Paris Jackson meets Melbourne Cup favourite Marmelo. Picture: Jason Edwards

Phil Mehrten, a construction magnate who has a share in seven horses in today’s Cup, including two with Kheir, says he will keep his friend to his word.

“He’ll have to keep working hard to keep us in the game,’’ Mehrten says with a laugh.

With more than 100,000 racegoers preparing to brave wintry conditions at Flemington, the money has flowed steadily for Marmelo, installing the five-year-old stallion as favourite ahead of last year’s winner Almandin, ­Humidor, Johannes Vermeer and Kheir’s other horse in the race, Wall of Fire.

Anyone who doubts Kheir’s ­resolve to keep a good thing going need only consider his persuasive powers in convincing Marmelo’s British breeders and owners, Edward and Christabel Goodwin, to part with a half share of the horse and their dream of running him in this year’s Prix de L’Arc Triomphe.

Kheir and Mehrten had closely followed Marmelo’s progress in Europe.

When in August the horse travelled to France and won the 3000m Prix Kergorlay, the pair knew they had found another good Cup chance.

The Goodwins were reluctant to sell and had ambitions of taking the horse to Chantilly for a crack at the world famous Arc.

Eventually, they were swayed by Mehrten and Kheir, who is hosting the Goodwins while they are in town.

Part-owner Ozzie Kheir and his wife Linsey and baby Lenni.

Kheir might have been a racing novice when he started in 2011 but knows how to treat a guest.

In addition to overseeing the Resimax property empire, he is the owner of Melbourne’s Adelphi Hotel, the Vegas-style Baroq nightclub and the Bond Bar, an uber-upmarket club which, for $50,000 a night, offers patrons a helicopter ride, a personal masseur and chauffeur, an engraved 15-litre bottle of Veuve and a box of Cuban cigars.

Kheir’s occasional home at the Adelphi is an opulent, rooftop penthouse where the Goodwins are now staying.

“When he races in Europe we’ll be crashing at their house,’’ Kheir says.

Marmelo captured the imagination of punters when he showed a blistering turn of speed in the closing stages of the Caulfield Cup to finish sixth.

“We got up in the morning in England and we were very excited by that,’’ says the horse’s Berkshire-based trainer Hughie Morrison, in Melbourne for his first spring carnival.

It also helps to have Hugh Bowman, one of Australia’s leading jockeys, in the saddle.

Bowman rates Marmelo as the best chance of his career to win a Melbourne Cup.

Mehrten likes Marmelo’s chances but then, he has a few. With a share in five Cup horses owned by Lloyd Williams, plus his two with Kheir, he is Flemington’s most connected figure.

Mehrten is used to having many projects on the go. The construction company he founded, Probuild, generates revenues of about $2 billion.

When the gates open and the field jumps for the Cup, he won’t know where to look.

He would love to see Williams’ Almandin win back-to-back and be a part of racing history.

“But, to be honest, we are in with a chance with all of them,” Mehrten says.

“As long as they are in our colours or the Williams colours I don’t mind that much. It is just amazing to be able to rock up with some real live chances.’’

Mehrten already owned horses with Williams when he was introduced to Kheir by John O’Neil, a mutual friend who is also an owner of Marmelo and Wall of Fire. The pair are now firm friends, with money and time to indulge their shared passion.

“I don’t think I would ever own a horse by myself,’’ Kheir says. “Unless you are sharing it with a bunch of good mates it’s not the same.’’