KEY POINTS:
Winning group one races means different things to different people.
Don't underestimate what winning Saturday's A$2.5 million Caulfield Cup means to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum.
To most of us it would be the huge winner's cheque.
Not for this owner.
When you run your own country,
particularly one as affluent as oil-rich Dubai, you can buy anything you like.
Except group one wins at the racetrack.
If the Sheikh wanted to own the world's fastest formula one motor there is little doubt he could put the deal together.
But horses, not horsepower, are his bag.
Horse racing is the only game in town which doesn't allow you to buy your wins.
You and I wouldn't be capable of racing a formula one, yet with the right sort of freakish luck we could own a horse that matched strides with the Sheikh's best.
Which is why racing has fascinated some of the world's richest, like Sheikh Mohammed.
Probably the world's most expensive equine operation, Godolphin, allows the Sheikh 500 horses in his ownership at any time, but he still hasn't achieved his stated goal of winning a Kentucky Derby and a Melbourne Cup.
He went one step closer in front of a record crowd of 52,000 at Caulfield on Saturday when All The Good provided Godolphin with its first group one victory in Australia after previously sending 17 other horses down to attempt that feat.
All The Good was Godolphin's first Australian runner since Razkalla finished 16th in the 2005 Caulfield Cup.
"We've been waiting to find the right horses," said Godolphin's racing manager Diana Cooper at Caulfield.
Cooper was deputising for the operation's trainer Saeed Bin Suroor, like his owner, was absent back in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Sheikh is no stranger to Melbourne though - one year he brought his private 747 to Australia and the entourage took up an entire floor of the plush Crown Casino, ferrying into Flemington on Cup Day in helicopters.
If the victory was a huge thrill for the Shiekh, it was equally sweet for rider Kerrin McEvoy, who in the past two months has copped a complete bagging from the press and racing officials for failing to immediately re-adapt to the racing rhythm of his native Australia after spending five years as Godolphin's No 2 jockey behind Frankie Dettori in Europe and Dubai.
Sydney's chief steward Ray Murrihy recently told McEvoy he needed to lift his game if he wanted to continue riding in Sydney.
Rather than packing a sad, McEvoy once again displayed his great character by accepting the criticism with a "maybe I did make a couple of blues".
That Caulfield winning post must have looked good to McEvoy late on Saturday.
Each year the Europeans have refined the type of horse they've brought to Australia for the Melbourne Cup and All The Good is just one example.
Perhaps the world's two greatest trainers, Aidan O'Brien and Luca Cumani, vowed last year to keep coming back down under until they have won the Melbourne Cup.
Cumani went so close last year with Purple Moon and his luckless runner Mad Rush turned on almost certainly the best Melbourne Cup trial from the Caulfield Cup.
Head to head, it was a better run than All The Good's and gains considerably more points from the fact that he won't have to carry the rehandicap All The Good will take to the Melbourne Cup.
When the Japanese return to Melbourne after the equine influenza regulations are sorted and more and more Europeans flood south for the big money, it will be a big thing for Australians and New Zealanders to simply get a horse into the Melbourne Cup, let alone win it.
Saturday saw just two of the Northern Hemisphere raiders line up - there are a further seven waiting in quarantine at Sandown.
* Nom Du Jeu turned in a massive Melbourne Cup trial by flashing home late into second behind All The Good, shortening up to $8 for the Melbourne Cup.
Being a big, long-striding stayer, Nom Du Jeu is going to be better suited when he gets to Flemington.
* Red Ruler went better than his sixth placing suggests.
The No 1 barrier definitely counted against him. Red Ruler would have ended up last on the rail if Corey Brown had allowed him to relax early as the horse prefers.
Brown then spent the first half of the race attempting to get Red Ruler away from the inside rail, which he achieved, but at the expense of not allowing the horse to relax as much as he would have liked.
Brown then had to switch ground back to the inside at the top of the straight and Red Ruler did well to finish close up after copping a decent check from Weekend Hussler.
"Corey told us to take the blinkers off him," said trainer John Sargent.
"He felt that made him race too keenly."
* Boundless was racing in tight quarters for much of the race and similarly her effort was better than her placing suggests.
Verdict: First blood to Godolphin.
Next week it should be Princess Coup winning the A$3 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley for New Zealand - outside of bad luck, how can they beat her?
Then the Melbourne Cup. The jury's well and truly still out.