It may be a Melbourne Cup for the oldies tomorrow - and not necessarily Bart.
Trainer Bart Cummings, rising 82, has won 12 Melbourne Cups and has a grand chance of his getting his "baker's dozen", with his trio of Viewed, Roman Emperor and Allez Wonder tomorrow.
But New Zealand has some oldtimers out to upstage the Cups King.
Phil Bayly from Tauranga owns Harris Tweed, trained by father and son Murray and Bjorn Baker at Cambridge. Bayly is 86 and took part in the Cup parade through central Melbourne today.
"He's very well and is excited about tomorrow," Bjorn Baker said.
Bayly owned Blue Denim who finished an unlucky second in the 1980 Cup, storming home after losing ground during the race, when a horse collapsed dead, cannoning into her.
Harris Tweed traces back to Blue Denim in his breeding and is a chance to "cap it off for Phil", said Baker.
Noel Harris, at 54, is easily the oldest jockey in tomorrow's Cup. He first rode in the Cup in 1973 finishing second on Glengowan, trained by his father Jock.
"Harry is ageless," said Alexander Fieldes, who trains Harris' mount Capecover.
Auckland horse Spin Around and the New Zealand-bred Ista Kareem are the veteran horses, both nine years old.
That's senior citizenship in human terms. No nine-year-old has won the Cup, but Spin Around has no inkling of his age, says trainer Steve Cooper. Nor does he know he is paying $201 to win in Australia.
At 72, Manawatu trainer Kevin Gray is lining up his first horse in the Melbourne Cup in Daffodil. Gray has joked he has a tough job to catch up on Cummings's record in the Cup.
In fact there was a story going around Melbourne today that Cummings had said Daffodil could not win the Melbourne Cup. Why? Because her trainer was not old enough. The yarn's veracity could not be confirmed.
The New Zealand TAB, which had a turnover of $7.6 million on the Cup last year, is expecting a flood of money for Daffodil tomorrow as she has the best form of the five Kiwi runners.
And today she got did something rare and managed to get political consensus. "Spring is in the air so I will be backing Daffodil," said Prime Minister John Key.
Opposition leader Phil Goff concurred. "I'm picking Daffodil. It's in with a real shot. However, I'm wary of Bart Cummings' horses and quite like the look of Alcopop too."
