Outright favorite and four-legged heartthrob Makybe Diva yesterday became the first horse to win a third Melbourne Cup in what Australians rightly call the race that stops a nation.
The seven-year-old local mare went to the front with 200m to go in the 3.2km race and handily beat On A Jeune and Xcellent.
"This is Phar Lap the second," a tearful Glenn Boss said as he rode a victory lap in front of 140,000 at the Melbourne race track and millions more watching on television around the world.
PHOTO: AP
"She's immortal, mate. It's amazing. She just gives you that feeling every time you ride her," he said.
The fabled Phar Lap, named after the Thai words for a bolt of lightning, won the Melbourne Cup in 1930 -- one of 37 victories in 51 starts, including an astonishing four wins in eight days.
"I've been all around the world and I think Makybe Diva is the best mare I've seen," said 91-year-old former jockey Scobie Breasley, who raced against Phar Lap in the 1929 Melbourne Cup.
PHOTO: AP
The Diva's third win in a row was a blow to the bookies. Around a quarter of the bets were on the favorite. One overseas businessman placed A$1 million (US$750,000) on the Diva picking up the purse in one of the world's 10 richest races. Between them the 20 million Australians wagered over A$100 million.
The Diva is owned by Croatian-born tuna farmer Tony Santic. The horse's moniker is an amalgam of the names of five staff in Santic's office.
It was the best attended Cup in its 145-year history. Estimates are that punters downed close to half a million bottles of beer, 100,000 bottles of champagne and 30,000 bottles of wine.
The race really stops the nation: Parliament in Canberra was suspended for an event watched by more than eight out of 10 Australians.
The Diva, the nation's biggest-earning racehorse, extended her form to 16 wins in 36 races, the greatest of these being her triple firsts in the Melbourne Cup.
She's such an obsession that this week a woman in Victoria gave her newborn daughter the same name. But people dreaming of the Diva romping home for a fourth Cup win on the next first Tuesday in November were to be disappointed when Santic declared the English-born stayer had run her last race.
"People try to put her with Phar Lap," said Santic. "Phar Lap's the legend and there'll always be a legend. She's the new-day legend."
But is Makybe Diva really in the same class as Phar Lap? Breasley thinks not.
"No horse came near to him. He had brilliant acceleration and the ability to settle when he needed to. He was an awesome galloper," the legendary jockey said.
Breasley reckons that Phar Lap, with a little more luck and a little less ballast in his saddle, would have won the Cup not just in 1930 but in 1929 and 1931 as well.
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