Melbourne Cup Day

Now known as the Emirates Melbourne Cup the Trophy itself is made of 34 pieces of 18 carat gold hand beaten over 200 hours and valued at $125,000. (The prize money is $5.65 million).

Noted for its "Loving Cup" design, the trophy is one of the most identifiable sporting trophies anywhere in the world.

It doesn't matter what style you choose - you must wear a hat to the Cup! Not just any old hat, but a hat that you wouldn't wear on any other occasion.

The Cup is handicapped. Weights are set according to the records of the individual horses, so the better the horse is, the more weight it has to carry in the race.

Racing purists and "serious" betters dislike the Cup, as the unusually long distance and handicap rules make the result highly unpredictable, but the mug punter like me has as good a chance of picking the winner as those who follow the form.

I picked the winner in 2005 and I still talk about it today. I put my money on a gallant little mare named Makybe Diva and she has now joined two other horses as a champion of almost mythical status

Carbine winning the Melbourne Cup (after a painting by Stainforth)

When Carbine won the Melbourne Cup in 1890 he beat the largest field of 39 starters and carried the greatest winning weight ever (66kgs or 10 stone 5 pounds). No horse had ever won with this huge weight, and no horse has ever equalled this weight since.

Carbine hated rain and would refuse to train in the wet, so his trainer designed a miniature umbrella that fitted over his ears and kept his head dry.

The big bay stallion won the hearts of the nation. This was during the Depression of the 1890s and he became a symbol of endurance to the Australians struggling to get by. Carbine carried a huge weight, he was severely handicapped but he kept going - and he won!

As for the third of the workforce who had lost their jobs, they had to keep going like Carbine.

Phar Lap wins the Cup. National Library of Australia

When it comes to Melbourne Cup favourites, only one horse started odds-on. That was the immortal Phar Lap, who won the coveted trophy in 1930 while carrying a 68kg or10 stone handicap.

Phar Lap was foaled among the rich sweet grass of New Zealand in 1926. He stood at 17 hands and over his career won more than 65 thousand pounds in prize money and won 37 of his 51 starts. He won virtually every major Australian race, many of them twice.

The idea of taking 'Big Red' to the United States had been discussed among racing people for some time, but it was said that many had a dark sense of foreboding about the plans. However, the decision was not theirs to make.

Phar Lap went on to win America's richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap, in 1932.

He died, a fortnight later, in suspicious circumstances.

At the news of his death, the Australian press overflowed with tributes to Phar Lap, extolling his virtues as a champion horse and describing some of his glorious moments on the race track. In an age when memories of Gallipoli were still strong, one of the main themes was that of Phar Lap as a noble warrior.

These days you can find his skeleton in the Dominion Museum in New Zealand, his hide on display at the Museum of Victoria, and his famously big heart at the National Museum of Australia.

To have a heart as big as Phar Lap is high praise indeed.

She was already a champion for winning the Melbourne Cup in 2003 and 2004 --and a third successive victory elevated her to racing immortality.

Makybe Diva owes her unusual name to five tuna packers. The first two letters of each of five women who work in a tuna factory operated by the mare's owner, former fisherman Tony Santic, were added together and shuffled around to produce Makybe. And this mare is indeed a Diva.