Sport is made for betting

It doesn't get any better than a horse race that has a public holiday for it. The Melbourne Cup will be run tomorrow (3pm local time, 4am GMT). This may be the strongest Cup ever, it's certainly the best in my era with Group 1 winners galore, but it also has a few that should have been excluded on recent form. So You Think is an absolute superstar. It showed on Saturday it can settle, go to sleep and then switch back on when necessary. That's what Saintly did to win in 1996, and only a rough trip in running is likely to beat him. From gate three, he might just squeezed and shuffled back a bit. Even still, very hard to beat him, no major concern about the distance despite not having run further than 2040m, High Chaparral's are flying in Aus at the moment and it would be fitting for the 150th Melbourne Cup to go to the master, Bart Cummings. As for the others: Shocking - won last year, goes up in weight, but loves Flemington. Was drawn v.wide last year so not bother...

This might seem second nature in the UK but it's a new development in Australia. On-course bookies had to be just that, and while recent law changes had allowed local bookmakers to form companies and trade 24/7, that was only if they were on track within that state. Now Victoria has allowed Centrebet, Sportsbet, and the big one, TABCorp trading as TAB Sportsbet, to work on the rails. Bit controversial they have been allowed to queue jump and not be subject to the normal procedures of Victorian bookies during spring carnival time, but it's hardly surprising. TABCorp goes on the rails TABCORP will join the Flemington rails as an on-course bookie for the first time on Derby Day. Tabcorp has won approval from the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation to short-circuit Victoria Bookmakers' Association rules to gain a rails berth. Derby Day, this Saturday at Flemington, is the best day of domestic racing anywhere in the world. Quality from start to finish, and over 100,000 ...

Hooray, we won't have to put up with the depressing John Berry on AtTheRaces all night! Betfair to market Melbourne Cup overseas Betfair and the VRC today announced a landmark agreement that will see the VRC's Melbourne Cup Day races streamed online to Betfair's overseas customer base of over 3 million people. ... VRC CEO, Dale Monteith said, "We look forward to working with Betfair to maximize the returns to Victorian racing, from this exciting new initiative, which hopefully can be expanded in the near term to include days other than Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington." It's crazy that SkyRacing hold the international rights on Australian racing, yet the pictures shown in the UK are the rubbish which comes via America, complete with $50 pools and filler between races from two tracks. Get a deal done, get the proper stuff screened and give the UK bookies rebates for betting into the Aus pools (like they do with the American racing).

Bizarre story this - an 80yo Melbourne racecourse bookmaker was robbed at the end of a fairly busy raceday at Flemington. But the robber then had a guilt trip and gave most of the money back! Guilt beats greed after not-so-great bookie robbery

Most of Australia's best sprinters stepped out overnight at Flemington in the Group 1 Lightning Stakes, a weight-for-age contest over 1000m. All the hype was about the two 'superstars', Weekend Hussler and Apache Cat, both coming into the race first-up, plus if you've been following the tennis this week, you'll know it has been stinking hot in Melbourne as well... During the week the betting was as short as 2.1 Weekend Hussler and 3.5 Apache Cat. Thankfully sanity prevailed and they drifted to 2.5 and 4.8 by race time, with a bit of support for other runners, and bookies tightening their margins. The end result? Both unplaced, with WA visitor Scenic Blast winning at 19, followed by Typhoon Zed (13) and Grand Duels (26).

Cracking day of racing at Flemington, the home of the Melbourne Cup today. Group 1 Newmarket Handicap over 1200m. Group 1 Australian Guineas over 1600m, for 3yo. Group 1 Australian Cup over 2000m at wfa. Weekend Hussler has the boom on him in the Newmarket, but he's taking on the older horses here down the Flemington straight six. The grey colt Light Fantastic will start a clear favourite in the Guineas while the Australian Cup field has no obvious standout. The champion 2yo and 3yo filly of her year Miss Finland has been disappointing in open class, this is a fairly weak field, but has the bubble completely burst on her?