RACING: The race that stops the nation brings Flinders Street station to a thickening crawl. In the rising heat of Melbourne's best weather for over a week, the jackets and ties are already an encumbrance for the men but the fine, 24 degree weather is more what the locals expect, writes Seán Moranat Flemington Park.
Three days previously at the Derby meeting at Flemington, according to an ambulance attendant, the weather was so cold and wet he had to treat a few women for hypothermia.
Even those most wearily immune to sporting hype have to be impressed by the Melbourne Cup. Over 100,000 are making their way to the track with 8,000,000 in Australia, and nine times that world-wide, watching on television. And that's only the dusty statistics.
Last week's race coverage had been gifted a comic sidebar with the refusal of Holy Orders to train until the intervention of a horse whisperer.
Now on race morning one of the local favourites, Mummify, has scratched. The horse has already been in the eye of the storm after jockey Danny Nickolic was dragged before the stewards for effectively treating Saturday's Mackinnon Stakes as a training run.
The jockey protested the horse had not been right and after an eventful Monday saw him sacked and reinstated by trainer Lee Freedman, the stewards adjourned the hearing. Now we hear Mummify is "running a temperature".
Makybe Diva's flamboyant syndicate manager, wealthy Port Lincoln tuna fisherman Tony Santic, and his partners are pouring money onto their mare. Santic turned up at Monday's call of the card in the Crown Casino and harassed "celebrity" bookmaker Kathryn Read to take a bet that would land winnings of a million. Prudently she declined.
The first race is off at 10.30 a.m. The heat is building and it's inadvisable to stray into the open air without sunscreen. The penetrometer is out and the going officially changes from dead to good.
There's relief in the Forum, a great dark hall with vast screens (today there are eight other meetings on in Australia) where punters can fast track funds from ATMs to adjacent betting counters and gulp down great quantities of beer and cool conditioned air.
At the start the crowd make an extraordinary noise like the whooshing roar of a jet taking off. It's not a great race for the highest profile visitors. Dubai's Godolphin stable ends up with the last two home although favourite Mamool gets a knock and is clearly pulling up.
Holy Orders has made such an impact on the general public its Tote odds are half what the bookies are offering more discerning punters. Willie Mullins's horse is the back marker for virtually the whole race, getting up a few places before the end.
Sydney jockey Glen Boss holds his nerve before taking Makybe Diva through the middle of the field and flashing away to a fast, albeit not record, victory.
