Kiwis Top the Greatest Melbourne Cup Never Run

In celebration of the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup Racing Victoria's Chief Handicapper Greg Carpenter has rated his top 24 Melbourne Cup winners of all time with two Kiwi bred horses heading the list.

The hypothetical race has been labelled "The Greatest Race Never Run." The fictional field was unveiled at a function to launch "The Story of the Melbourne Cup, Australia's Greatest Race" at the Melbourne museum on Wednesday.

Little surprise, it was the Kiwi bred Phar Lap, more affectionately known as 'Big Red', the most famous Melbourne Cup winner of all time who was rated number one in the field with 60 kilograms. Phar lap won the Melbourne Cup back in 1930 and remains to this day the most famous horse in Australasian history.

The number two saddle cloth went to another New Zealand bred, the great Carbine who was allocated 59 kilograms. Carbine won the Cup way back in 1890.

A computer generated simulation of the race was run with all 24 horses drawing barriers for the race. Each horse has ridden by its cup winning jockey in the same colours that it carried to victory, with Bruce McAvaney calling race.

 It was of course, the mighty Phar lap who took the honours in the race from Carbine with the three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva running into third.

Overall there were nine New Zealand bred horses in the field which is a outstanding achievement though well deserved given our record in the race. Other Kiwi breds to feature in the 24 strong list were Galilee, Rising Fast, Might and Power, Nightmarch, Dalray, Light Fingers and Doriemus.