The Kiwi Battlers Guide To The Melbourne Cup

The day is finally here, the first Tuesday of November, (t̶h̶e̶ b̶e̶s̶t̶ e̶x̶c̶u̶s̶e̶ t̶o̶ g̶e̶t̶ o̶n̶ t̶h̶e̶ p̶i̶s̶s̶ o̶n̶ a T̶u̶e̶s̶d̶a̶y̶) the race that stops two nations, front load your work today, cancel your afternoon meetings and get down to your local for an action packed afternoon.

I'm not an expert by any means, (in fact quite the opposite) but I've watched enough Wednesday afternoon Aussie races to have some sort of opinion... here's my rundown of some of the horses I can see crossing the line first at Flemington roughly at about 5pm.

Race Info

The Lexus Melbourne Cup race is scheduled to start at 5pm, race 7, meeting 7 at Flemington. Due to the nature of proceedings there will seemingly be a bit of a delay so I would imagine the horses will jump anywhere between 5:05 and 5:10pm.

The Horses

There's 23 horses (1 has already been scratched), with only four of the horses from Australia this year. The country breakdown of horses looks like this....

Australia 4

New Zealand  4

France 4 (1 scratched)

Great Britain 5

Ireland 5

USA 1

Japan 1

Australia's race is now definitely an international affair with the European horses heavily involved in the 2024 race.

New Zealand Horses

The last New Zealand horse to win the cup was Verry Ellegant in 2021, with the greatest jockey in the world (Kiwi) James McDonald on board. Somehow JMac doesn't have a ride this year but Mick Dee is the flying the flag for the Kiwi jockeys this year as he rides Sharp 'N' Smart.

The 4 kiwi horses are 5. Kovalica $21/$6.50, 6. Sharp 'n' Smart $51/$12, 21. Positivity $71/$16 and 24. Trust In You $101 / $21.

They all have relatively good form lines and if you're feeling patriotic today 5 and 6 could do anything...

The Heroic NZ Stories Of Yesteryear

This is in no way a promotion for the TAB or any other bookies and remember to always gamble responsibly, but do you remember these two legendary Melbourne Cup betting stories from Nz.

The homeless Kiwi man who turned $5 into $106K and the retired Christchurch man who turned $30 into $1 Million two great reads from the last few years where first 4 bets paid out big time in the great race and essentially changed lives...

Jeremy Wells & G Lane's Tip

The great man Jeremy Wells has just stormed out of the studio to announce that he will be backing... and apparently G Lane is on the same one.

18. Interpretation $18/$6

An Irish Gelding who ran in the cup last year, finished the Geelong cup strong a couple weeks ago and has strong suggestions that he will come in strong on the Flemington straight.

Boys Get Paid Tip

Luke Kemeys the front man of the ACC's BGP punting group has declared his best bet in the cup as...

14. Zardosi $12/$4.20

An Aussie horse with an interesting prep coming into the cup, trained by James Cummings Grandson of the legendary Bart and is really coming into form. The royal blue colours will be easy to follow and I also walked past a Great New Zealander on the side of the road by Skycity yesterday and he tipped it... 

Tips

As I said before I'm no expert but here are a few horses I will be having a play on.

15. Sea King $14/$4.60

Great British horse who has come over and dominated in the Bendigo Cup last week, the horse has a lightweight on board (50.5kg) and I can see it powering through the straight and shooting to the line first with the inside barrier draw (number 1)

9. Absurde $10/$3.60

French horse who looked like he was going to win last year coming into the final straight and just got outclassed by a storming Irish horse "Without A Fight". It has a good barrier draw at 6, experienced Australian jockey Kerrin McEvoy and the learnings it has from last year should help it go better in the final part of this race.

5. Buckaroo $7/$2.80

A great Australian horse, trained by the Great New Zealander Chris Waller and ridden by 'the magic man' Joao Moreira. The prep for this horse has been great, with a sickening close second place to Cox Plate winner "Via Sistina" in the Turnbull stakes and a second place in the Caulfield cup two weeks ago, the form lines on this horse are there to win and all signs show that it should run out the 3200 metres with ease. The only downfall is a shocking barrier draw in number 20... don't rule this one out.

NZ Tip

6. Kovalica $21/$6.50

Melbourne's premier Jockey Damian Lane is on board this Kiwi horse and after winning the Queensland Derby it hasn't showed too much besides a storming home run in the 2024 Cox Plate. Could be worth including in your top 4's...

5. Sharp 'N' Smart $51/$12

A top 10 bet for this horse is paying $2.50 and it has seen a bit of money being crunched from $71 earlier in the week. An impressive showing in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup saw it run home with third place, it has Kiwi expat Michael Dee on board and it is a true long distance staying horse... the way Kiwi's have been performing on the global stage as of late I wouldn't be surprised if this horse gave it a taste of Kiwi!

First 4 

5,11,16,14,8,18

Other Bets Today

Race 1 Ellerslie - Witz End $2.45 

Race 2 Flemington - Opening Address (JMAC) $3.30

Race 8 Flemington - Stage 'N' Screen $5.50 (NZ)

Race 9 Randwick - South Of India $2.80

If you needed any more fizzing up for the Melbourne Cup today, check out this Phil Gould State of Origin impression from Benny Scarf one of the great Australian battlers... if this doesn't fire you up for a Tuesday, nothing will!

Happy Melbourne Cup day, have fun, stay safe and good luck New Zealand...

Oh also if you're doing an office sweepstake, we hope it is better than Jason Hoyte's one from 2021...

An opinion piece by Joel Harrison