Horse Racing

The 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup Trophy, celebrating 150 years

In anticipation of the 2010 Melbourne Cup this November, celebrations by the Victorian Racing Club yesterday included the unveiling of the Greatest Cup Never Run, a fictional list of the best 24 Melbourne Cup winners throughout history.

Selected by the VRC’s chief handicapper Greg Carpenter and published in the book The Story of the Melbourne Cup: Australia’s Greatest Race that was launched yesterday, the historic Melbourne Cup field features an incredible selection of gallopers that have won the time-honoured Melbourne Cup over the past 149 years.

The unique Melbourne Cup field is headed by the legendary Phar Lap (1930) honoured with the ‘topweight’ of 60kg and includes other great Cup winners including record three-time winner Makybe Diva (2003-2005), dual victor Peter Pan (1932, 1934), inaugural winner Archer (1861, 1862, and four of premier trainer Bart Cummings’ stars with Galilee (1966), Saintly (1996), Light Fingers (1965) and Think Big (1974, 1975) sneaking in at the bottom of the field.

A mock call of the Greatest Cup Never Run will be held at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.

There is a great story behind each and every turf star in the fictional field and this year on Tuesday November 2 another page in the Melbourne Cup tale will be written with the 150^th running of the world’s richest handicap.

Next Tuesday the Melbourne Cup first nominations close and the large list of hopeful horses will be published here.

Once the 2010 Melbourne Cup nominations are in, the betting markets really begin to heat up so to lock in the most generous odds before they shorten head to SportingBet today who have pre-nomination odds available, topped by early favourite Faint Perfume at $15.

The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival kicks off this Saturday with the first Group race of the season, the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.

So get ready for some exciting betting opportunities by kicking your TAB habit and signing up at Sportsbet instead!

Sportsbet have the best odds and betting offers including their Horses Birthday Bet Bonus to celebrate the changing of age of all racehorses in Australia this Sunday.

Greatest Cup Never Run Field