Events / Editor / 03 August 2007 /

Probably the world's most significant two-mile handicap and one of the hottest betting events of the year anywhere on the globe, the Melbourne Cup, run at Flemington racecourse, is the race that annually 'stops the nation' of Australia as does (to a lesser extent) the Golden slipper carnival held in March.

Massive bets and frenetic betting both from the 100,000 or more on-course punters and off-track bets at a wide variety of odds, make the Melbourne Cup compulsive viewing for Australia's betting public and serious business for the betting industry internationally.

The remarkable mare Makybe Diva defied all the odds and became a household name when landing stacks of bets during her three odds-defying victories in 2003, 2004 & 2005, on the last two occasions being trained by the popular Lee Freedman.

Traditionally the Melbourne Cup was the preserve of the home team and the odds and betting for any overseas raiders always reflected the fact that their chances of landing the prize, after travelling half way across the globe, were long odds against.

Irish trainer Dermot Weld has a superb record internationally and proved all the doubters wrong when landing a famous victory and many bets for Irish betting fans when his Vintage Crop won in 1993. Weld then proved that was no fluke when, despite the Australian betting gurus believing otherwise, he produced a further odds-defying performance to do the same again with the long odds outsider Media Puzzle in 2002, who had been available in the pre-race betting at up to 40/1.

Those that take their betting seriously and like to bet following strong trends, will monitor very closely any challenger from the Weld yard once again.

This year's renewal of the Melbourne Cup lies under a cloud at present due to an outbreak of the deadly equine influenza virus. Many people wanting to consider ante-post bets on the race might consider waiting to see which overseas runners already included in betting lists will be given the green light to travel, before getting their betting boots on this time around.

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