While the 24 runners for this year's Melbourne Cup are still being finalised, why not stick with Victorian hoop Damian Lane and his mount - the Japanese bred and trained galloper Mer De Glace, to win the 3200 metre spectacle on November 5.
The pair won the Caulfield Cup-G1 before Lane added the prestigious MVRC W S Cox Plate-G1 aboard another Japanese bred and trained galloper Lys Gracieux at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
A six-year-old mare, Lys Gracieux is by Heart's Cry (by Sunday Silence) also the sire of 2014 Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti.
A five-year-old stallion, Mer De Glace is by another Japanese bred stallion Rulership, the same sire as the Japanese bred but Waterhouse/Bott trained Hush Writer - an easy winner of the 2600 metre St Leger Stakes at Randwick on Everest/Kosciuszko day.
A middle-distance Group 1 Cup winner in Japan, Rulership is a Mr Prospector line-sire, being a son of champion Japanese sire King Kamehameha (Kingmambo) also the sire of emerging and outstanding Japanese sire Lord Kanaloa.
Thank goodness it appears that Australia could have two home-bred Melbourne Cup runners, Angel Of Truth, and Vow And Declare, both geldings sired by former shuttle horses Animal Kingdom (Arrowfield Stud), and Declaration Of War (Coolmore Stud), respectively.
Trained by Kembla Grange's Gwenda Markwell, Angel Of Truth won this year's Australian Derby-G1, while the Danny O'Brien prepared Vow And Declare finished second to Mer De Glace in the Caulfield Cup.
As in recent years, Europe are hugely prominent with runners including a likely six horses representing Irish stables of Aiden O'Brien and son Joseph. One of them, Hunting Horn (by Irish Derby winner and one-time shuttler Camelot) won the Moonee Valley Gold Cup-G2 on Saturday.
Interestingly, the first five placegetters of last year's cup and all northern hemisphere bred horses, are in line for another tilt - Cross Counter, Marmelo, Prince Of Arran, Finche, and Irish bred Rostropovich, the latter two by champion UK racehorse Frankel.
Winner of a renowned cup lead-up race the Geelong Cup, Prince of Arran is by German Derby winner Shirocco, who is by champion German sire Monsun (sire of recent Melbourne Cup winners Fiorente, Protectionist, and Almandin).
Marmelo gets plenty of staying power by former Danehill shuttler Duke Of Marmalade, while Cross Counter via his sire Teofilo, and his iconic UK sire Galileo.
Galileo is also the sire of Irish bred five-year-old stallion Constantinople, who ran a slashing fourth (to Mer De Glace) in the Caulfield Cup and is Australian trained by David and Ben Hayes, and Tom Dabernig.
The Victorian town of Horsham will be abuzz with excitement for their cup representative, Surprise Baby trained by Paul Preusker. Winning The Bart Cummings-G3 (2500 metres) at Flemington earlier this month, Surprise Baby is a New Zealand bred son of Melbourne Cup winner Shocking.
Vale Neale Lavis
Neale Lavis OAM - a member of the famous four-man Australian equestrian team that made history when winning gold in the three-day event at Rome's 1960 Olympic Games, died at Braidwood aged 89 in early October.
Also taking out an individual silver medal for eventing at the same Olympics, Mr Lavis was the youngest in the team - then aged 30 and rode his horse named Mirrabooka.
Spending a life with horses by his side, Mr Lavis was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall Of Fame in 1989, and later received the Order of Australia Medal.
After the 1964 Olympics, Mr Lavis and his wife Velma, purchased a large landholding on the outskirts of Braidwood and began training horses as well as entering the Thoroughbred breeding industry under the banner of Strathallan Stud.
While Kid Wilkes was among the initial Thoroughbred stallions to stand at Strathallan, it was the US-bred imported horse Whiskey Road that brought fame to the property.
By Northern Dancer's Nijinsky, Whiskey Road famously sired the 1981 Melbourne Cup winner Just A Dash, as well as the 1982-83 Australian Horse Of The Year Strawberry Road, who also won a Group 1 race in France and Germany, before finishing second (to champion filly Pebbles) in the US Breeders Cup Turf.
The stallion then had a highly successful US stud career standing at Brookside Farm in Kentucky, where he sired over 230 winners, importantly Group 1 winners Fraise, Escena, Dinard and Ajina.
