Melbourne Cup: Cummings the man to beat today

Aussie horse trainer Bart Cummings has already won 12 Melbourne Cups. Photo / Getty Images

There is one chair to the right of the jockeys' scales in the weighing room at Flemington racecourse.

No real surprise that the bum that sat on it on Derby Day on Saturday belonged to Bart Cummings.

It isn't just the life-sized bronze statue inside the main turnstiles of the master Australian horse trainer that permeates Flemington racetrack.

Cummings is everywhere.

Cummings is Flemington.

He is certainly the Melbourne Cup.

As the 81-year-old attempts to win his astonishing 13th Melbourne Cup on one of the world's most famous racetracks this afternoon, he comes up against a rival that has never been to Flemington on a raceday, much less to a Melbourne Cup raceday.

Dom Tourmeur will ride rising star Alcopop, the equal $5 favourite with the Cummings-trained Viewed.

This is classic David and Goliath.

Tourmeur is a bush jockey.

He's more at home in front of 1200 on his home track at Mt Gambier than he is in front of 110,000 over-excited racegoers in the big smoke.

But Alcopop's part owner and trainer Jake Stephens has bottomless faith in his stable rider.

When he speaks of his jockey's lack of profile he says: "It might just make him more hungry to push through narrow gaps."

Maybe.

Fellow South Australian John Letts, these days riding a pony named Banjo, interviews jockeys after each race as they return to the birdcage.

Letts won the Melbourne Cup in 1972 on Piping Lane and in 1980 on Beldale Ball.

Instead of asking questions with his microphone, Letts was yesterday telling stories, advising Tourmeur what he's likely to face this afternoon.

"I showed him a video of a Melbourne Cup and turned up the sound as loud as it would go and said: "That's what you're going to be hearing when you and Alcopop jump out of the gates."

Letts said his advice centred on two main points - don't go out with a solid riding plan and don't be sucked into the hype.

"I told him to simply let the horse settle where he felt happy.

"And I drilled into him not to make his run too soon.

"They take off at the 800m and go four and five wide. I told him to leave his run until they straighten up.

"At the 200m you need to be finishing, not finished."

This is a race that doesn't just capture the imagination of Australians and New Zealanders.

Seven months ago, 39-year-old Zurich businessman Lukas Baumann sold everything and set off for the Melbourne Cup - driving his Volvo.

He arrived on Sunday, 36,000km later.

Late yesterday he was applying to the Victoria Racing Club to be allowed to drive his Volvo across the Flemington finish line just before the Cup.

You didn't waste breath asking what the answer was.

And everyone that can afford it is trying to win the race as an owner.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov owns the Herman Brown-trained European raider Mourilyan.

Kadyrov isn't travelling to Melbourne, he's a touch busy at the moment.

Overseas news services have reported that separatist leader Doku Umarov was killed on Saturday in an operation led by Kadyrov.

South African-born Herman Brown says he doesn't hear much from Kadyrov because he speaks almost no English.

But through an aid yesterday he said: "Try to bring us the Cup."

Kadyrov was arranging to watch the race.

Anyone, it seems, has the potential to put their name on the honours board of Australasia's greatest horse race.

But a horse called Alcopop, trained by a Jake Stephens and ridden by a Dom Tourneur?

Perhaps.

Makybe Diva was an unlikely name until she won three Melbourne Cups.

Now she's a legend.

And so is Bart Cummings.

And he might just prove just how big a legend at 5pm today by winning his 13th Melbourne Cup with Viewed, Roman Emperor or Allez Wonder.

A perfect racing surface will face the 24 Melbourne Cup runners.

There is the possibility of just a few showers with a high of 20C, well down on the 30C sauna that was Derby Day on Saturday.

Bart Cummings' 12 Melbourne Cup winners
1965 - Light Fingers
1966 - Galilee
1967 - Red Handed
1974 - Think Big
1975 - Think Big
1977 - Gold And Black
1979 - Hyperno
1990 - Kingston Rule
1991 - Let's Elope
1996 - Saintly
1999 - Rogan Josh
2008 - Viewed