Maybe Better has recovered from the jarring -up apparently and is a Cup starter. I'm not keen.

Yeah, you're right crash,
there are enough obstacles to backing the winner or placegetters without wagering significant amounts on runners over which there is still some doubt.
So, I'll look elsewhere and pay particular attention to the happenings this weekend.
I'm still a bit "shell-shocked" but those are the chances that pre-post bettors take...no complaints from me-that's the way it goes.

Cheers.

Looking like either Master O'riely or Gallic [has the win form over the distance] now.

Why is it that punters go crazy for the Melbourne Cup? Desperate to place larger than normal bets on horses weeks and even months before race day?

From a punting perspective it is just another race. Personally, I'll just analyse the race as any other and if I come up with a selection I'll bet, if there is no method selection, no bet.

Don't allow the emotion of the historical race to sway you from your normal punting strategies. Keep things in focus and stay calm. The race is a great spectacle and I enjoy watching it as a sporting event but I won't waste my hard earned money on random selections. I leave that to the once a year punters.

Cheers

Privateer

I believe is all because of the pool of money. You have better value for money.

That's if they actually survive the "elimination process" and get to start in the big race.
Perhaps Scorpion was a "smokie" and the stable elect was always going to be Mahler. We know what those canny Irishmen are like and the fact that trainer O'Brien has made his first-ever journey to Australia may suggest he is supremely confident of taking the major spoils home with him to Blarney.

Cheers.

Can't be that smart when one of his horses is now lame because the 'smart' trainer ran him on a hard track.

MC is no 'another race', no more than the Cox is. Perhaps from a betting proposition, but for the excitement "X" factor, the Carnival races can't be beat!

Que, crash....?

Scorpion hasn't had a start in Oz....unless you mean the training track...well that is a risk every trainer takes when he/she takes their charge out in the early hours to "put them through their paces..."
I agree with you that there are many profitable opportunities for the alert punter to "pay their way" over the MC carnival in the so-called "lesser races" and the couple of weeks after. These are the races I concentrate on and usually return a profit.

Cheers.

Naturally I was referring to the hard training hit-out [had a run, not a start].