eight years previously, winning the VRC Oaks. Falamonte, Michelle Payne’s first of two rides for the day, finishes fifteenth of the eighteen runners. She has plenty of time to put on her Cup colours, coincidentally the purple, white and green of the suffragette movement — they signify dignity, purity and hope. She shares the jockey room with the only other female jockey riding that day, Jackie Beriman. There is an overflow from the male room so there are also three overseas visitors: William Buick, Ryan Moore and Gerald Mosse.
12.40pm
Race four is won by the promising four-year-old Malaguerra, whose seventh dam Rainbird won the 1945 Melbourne Cup.
1pm
Connie Brown places a Prince Of Penzance scarf around the Bart Cummings statue. For a photo, for luck. Surely Bart would’ve been cheering for Michelle. He had, after all, provided her with her first Melbourne Cup ride, Allez Wonder, in 2009.
1.20pm
Invincible Heart wins the fifth race, a 1000-metre dash down the straight. From Scone part-owner Warren Wruck cheers, to win a race on Melbourne Cup Day is to ‘tick one off the bucket list’.
1.30pm
Channel 7’s Neil Kearney interviews Michelle Payne, asking if she is nervous. ‘Not at all,’ she says. ‘I am excited to get out there and partner a horse I know really well.’
1.45pm
A crowd of several thousand are congregating in the city with Melbourne Cup Day action beamed from Flemington to Fed TV, at 5000-square metres Australia’s biggest fixed television screen. ‘This has become quite a tradition in recent years,’ says Matt Jones, Federation Square’s General Manager of Program and Events. ‘The day attracts an enthuiastic contingent of dedicated punters, many of whom dress up for the occasion, looking to experience the race in a novel atmosphere. We also have the advantage of being able to show off Cup Day to a wider audience of students and international tourists.’
1.55pm
Members of the Men In Hats Syndicate congregate outside the owners’ room at Flemington, plenty of happy snaps taken. Without consultation they have all turned up in the same coloured suits, but what really stands out is their Prince Of Penzance ties. ‘Sam said if we didn’t wear them we had to go home!’ laughs Mike Botting.
2pm
The Listed Lexus Hybrid Stakes is won in easy fashion by Don’t Doubt Mamma. Her fourth dam, Denise’s Joy, raced on this day in 1974, and a year later she won the VRC Oaks.
2.15pm
The Melbourne Cup horses are saddled up. Form analyst Peter Ellis waits patiently, and as he heads to the mounting yard with Darren Weir they discuss tactics.
2.18pm
Twenty-four horses primed for their biggest test stroll around the birdcage, their coats glistening. Some get a little on edge, but most take it in their stride — they are experienced stayers. Their trainers head to the mounting yard, including several who have won the big race before: Lee Freedman, David Hayes, Robert Hickmott and Gai Waterhouse. Gai’s husband is proud of her achievement, noting that ‘it is a very hard race to win; only two living New South Wales trainers have won it’. Les Bridge, back in 1987 with Kensei, is the other.
2.20pm
Anthony and James Cummings, son and grandson of a Melbourne Cup legend, hand over the 2015 Melbourne Cup to VRC Chairman Michael Burn, whose wide smile suggests he is just about the proudest man on course.
2.25pm
Twenty-four riders are presented to the crowd. They are born in eight different countries. Seven have already won the race, including Jim Cassidy. This is his last Melbourne Cup ride, with retirement beckoning. He takes off his Emirates hat and waves it to the crowd. For another, Damien Lane, this is a Cup debut. The rider of a roughie receives the most enthusiastic applause — Michelle Payne. Zac Purton rides the favourite Fame Game and is excited. ‘No other race worldwide stops a nation like the Melbourne Cup does. It’s always a special moment when you’re a part of something like this.’
2.35pm
One by one the Melbourne Cup horses enter the tunnel that leads to the mounting yard. The crowd’s noise does not break the thick walls, the only sound is the clip clop of hooves.
2.36pm
The horses emerge from under the ground, greeted by a sea of people. Every seat in the grandstand is taken, every viewing spot filled. Prince Of Penzance ‘looks the best he has ever looked’, notes owner Andrew Broadfoot.
2.45pm
Darren Lonsdale presses record on his phone, taping Michelle Payne’s final pre-race words. He leaves it on for the race.
2.46pm
The horses canter to the barriers.
2.55pm
They are at the gates. It is Paul Didham’s fourteenth Melbourne Cup as official starter. He concentrates on the job at hand but admits to some pre-race nerves: ‘It is a special day and it is a relief when you have them away without incident.’
2.58pm
Michelle Payne’s father Paddy watches from his home in Ballarat, by himself with a cup of tea.
2.59pm
Michelle Payne aboard Prince Of Penzance thinks about her late mother Mary, her late sister Brigid and of Bart Cummings. In her book she later writes that she ‘can feel they’re up there watching over me. Prince has a few of us riding with him today.’
3pm
Tension, excitement, anticipation. The Melbourne Cup is about to be run. It’s a big field but the horses load into the barriers without fuss. Despite this they run a couple of minutes late.
3.02pm
The barriers open, a flurry of colour. ‘They’re off,’ says caller Greg Miles.
Chapter Nine
The Race
It is the moment that comes as close to quiet as Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day can be.
The horses have entered the gates. All bets are on. Trainers have done everything they can. Owners tense up. Jockeys take a deep breath.
Ever so briefly there is a hush across the course. That tiny moment between the starter hitting the button and the barriers crashing open.
And then there is a mighty roar.
The roar cascades across the course. Those who have heard it before, who know it is coming, prepare to enjoy it.
Those at their first Melbourne Cup are overcome by it. There is no sound like it.
As the horses find their feet, as jockeys jostle for position, there is a gentler sound, that of punters talking out loud, figuring out where their fancy has settled.
At the
