Sport is made for betting

A competitive edition of the Melbourne Cup without being a great one. The La Nina weather cycle has made a mess of sporting events down the east coast in recent weeks and Flemington has not escaped that. It did race very well on Saturday considering the conditions, so fingers crossed that continues. At this stage it seems like the track will be Soft 7/Heavy 8 - rain is forecast, hopefully not enough for the track to deteriorate but also not warm or windy enough for proper drying weather as you'd normally see on the sand profile track.  There are only two international visitors in the field, Deauville Legend and Without A Fight, while another pair, Camorra and Hoo Ya Mal, will make their local debuts having been purchased for Australian syndicates. So the local moaners get their 'mostly locals' race. I think I'd prefer higher class myself but hey... Slightly different format this year, enjoy reading, bet responsibly, yada yada yada... ------------------------------------

Renowned as the greatest day on the Aussie racing calendar, that moniker has been under threat in recent years as the VRC has sought to spread the quality over the four days of the Cup carnival and rearrange the schedule a bit. Not sure I'm in full support of that but the fields this year have held up well.  The big concern this year is the weather - the east coast of Australia has been copping constant rain for weeks now, you will have seen the floods and the devastation behind it on TV. Flemington traditionally drains well due to its sand profile but that's when the water has somewhere to go. It's saturated at the moment and while getting into the Heavy 9/10 range is unlikely, it also means a fast recovery to a firmer surface is just as unlikely. Tread with caution! Ratings based on Soft 7/Heavy 8, improving through the day. Flemington traditionally drains very well, but there's been plenty of rain in the last few weeks.  R1 - Carbine Club Pungo, short-priced Waller f