Day Of The Diva

[KENNY-DOWALL]

By RAY THOMAS Racing Editor

November 01, 2005

MAKYBE Diva's trainer had a simple message to punters last night: "She will win."

Speaking on the eve of today's $5 million Melbourne Cup, Lee Freedman said he was confident Makybe Diva would create history and win the race for the third successive year.

Millions of punters are opening their hearts and wallets to back Australia's favourite racehorse in her bid for racing immortality.

TAB sales are expected to exceed $100 million today.

All betting records are expected to be broken as punters are swept away by "Diva Fever"




Early estimates has TAB sales up an extraordinary 60 per cent on last year's record Melbourne Cup betting turnover.

Makybe Diva remains the $3.50 favourite.

"There is no doubt The Diva Factor is behind the massive sales increases," TAB spokesman Peter Fletcher said.

With warm weather predicted, race club officials are expecting a new Cup Day record crowd of more than 130,000 at Flemington to watch the great race.

Victoria Racing Club marketing chief Stephen Silk said the build-up to the 145th running of the Melbourne Cup has been the biggest ever.

"We have to remember we are on the verge of racing history here," Mr Silk said.

"If Makybe Diva wins, she can be talked about in the same breath as Phar Lap. She would become a national icon."

Freedman, aiming for his fifth Melbourne Cup triumph, is bemused by expert opinion which suggests Makybe Diva can't win today and the fact many bookmakers are preparing to risk the champion mare on track.

"I think she will win. I find it curious we have the favourite in the Cup and virtually no one is tipping her," he said yesterday.

Freedman said Makybe Diva in the best form of her career after winning the Cox Plate brilliantly last start.

The one remaining concern for Freedman is the likely track conditions. He is fearful of the surface become too hard to Makybe Diva and asked for the Flemington surface to be watered again yesterday.

Flemington track manager Terry Watson said he expected to post a "dead" rating after inspecting the course this morning.

Watson said he was confident the track surface would be suitable for all runners.

"We irrigated the track on Saturday night with 6mm of water and then another 3mm of rain fell overnight," Watson said.

 

[Rodzilla]

the facts are, it cant win

with 58kg on its back, it will be too tough for her to finish off a winner

i think she will come close, and prove a great sight 200 metres out, but she wont be able to go through with it.

last year she got the miracle dream run through on the rails, that most likely wont happen twice

and also, the fact that this is a much more class cup then last year works against it

 

[sonnyfaifan]

1st eye popper
2nd demerger
3rd on a juene or strasburg

 

[~doggie~diva~]

 

[Leesee]

how dare they suggest being in the same breath as phar lap...no horse will ever surpass his records.
and yes, the 58kg will be the make or break point

 

[(((((SMACK)))))]

Viva the Diva....
But remember this,
PHAR LAP is a Legend, God and the true peoples champion. A champion when the people of Australia needed one. The is no comparison with the Great one.
He triumphed during the Great Depression of the early 1930s, when a hero was most needed by the people of Australia.

He conquered the local racing scene—36 wins from his last 41 starts—and then won North America's richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap, in 1932.

A fortnight later he went to the great equine heaven in the skies, struck down by a mystery illness that many suspected was the work of gangsters.


That is all.

 

[Rodzilla]

if diva wins today, she will have the right to be spoken alongside phar lap

winning 3 melbourne cups in a row, is just something you just dont do
espicially if your a mare and have 58kg on your back, which is unheard of if she wins carrying it

and also winning the cox plate/cup double would be a first

 

[Shanty Bill]

7-1-14, that's my PIN number.

 

[(((((SMACK)))))]

7-1-14, that's my PIN number.

Thanks I will remember that when I mug you......

 

[sonnyfaifan]

if diva wins today, she will have the right to be spoken alongside phar lap

winning 3 melbourne cups in a row, is just something you just dont do
espicially if your a mare and have 58kg on your back, which is unheard of if she wins carrying it

and also winning the cox plate/cup double would be a first

had to have won oversea's to even be mentioned in same breath.

bloody eye popper had on a juene for 2nd and xcellent for third. but not diva for first (2nd and third i did) went for a $1
1.eye popper
2. demerger, xcellent, on a juene, mikaybe diva
3. same four plus strasburg