Melbourne Cup 2024 LIVE updates: Garachio wins race five as ...

If you didn’t back the winner in that race, look away now, because I did!

Sitting second off a strong speed, Arran Bay was there to be beaten in the straight but was tough as nails in the finish for Luke Nolen (of Black Caviar fame) to hold off the topweight Unspoken from the favourite Apulia.

Arran Bay’s trainer Phillip Stokes usually gets a winner or two over the Flemington carnival.

This track is getting firm under the warm sun, as the time of one minute 48.8 seconds shows.

That’s just over a second outside the track record set in 2000.

At Lexus, as singer Ronan Keating posed for photographs at the media wall, the experts contemplated how Cup Day was different from Saturday’s Derby Day.

Food personality Melissa Leong, host of Dessert Masters, said she enjoyed people-watching.“I enjoy people-watching on Derby Day because there is a soothing monochromatic nature to it.

Storm and Ronan Keating at the races.Credit: Getty Images

“However there’s an exhibitionism about the Cup Day where people explode in colour.”

Bruce Keebaugh, owner of The Big Group, which has been keeping prominent Melburnians well fed for decades, said Cup Day was all about corporate clients.

“Cup Day varies dramatically from Derby Day. Derby is very much about social content, storytelling, and for the media to pick up the story,” Keebaugh said.

“Tuesday is about high networking. So top corporate Australia coming together and networking in this one little playground and it’s very important.”

Ariane Titmus.Credit: PENNY STEPHENS

Lexus also welcomed tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis and Olympian Ariarne Titmus.

But Keebaugh was keen to continue doing the rounds of his catering engagements.

“It is hot. I am actually going to sit on a slab of beer in my coolroom.”

The Furphy Plate is so old, Zipping won it way back in 2005 before the legendary horse finished fourth in three Melbourne Cups and won four Sandown Classics to go down in history as one of the most popular stayers this century.

I want to back Jimi Hendrix, trained by the musically gifted trainer Annabel Neasham, but his form is not great.

Perhaps have a quinella with Midnight Blue, and see if this race can repeat the famous 2006 musically inclined Melbourne Cup quinella Delta Blues and Pop Rock.

Apulia is the class horse but 1800 metres makes this a raffle, so throw him in multiples to get some value.

Fashions on the Field winner Holly Keenan.

After a tense round of judging, the winners of the daily Fashions on the Field have been decided. The three winners from today will go through to the grand final on Oaks Day.

Among them is Western Australian Holly Keenan, an underground mining engineer who used a software program to design the 511 laser-cut panels for her dress, which scored her a place in the final.

“It’s not as heavy as it looks, but it’s comfortable because it holds me,” she says.

Although the Penfolds marquee, tucked behind Lexus, may have one of the worst views of the track, from 3.30pm it becomes the party tent.

Entertainer Mike Snell and DJ Yo! Mafia will try to transform the luxurious red and white marquee into a thumping dance floor. Snell, a regular at VRC events, even used his charm as a performer to entice Demons star Christian Petracca to join him for a dance at a 2021 Oaks Day breakfast.

Snell describes the marquee’s parties as “basically every single person in the Penfolds marquee, jumping and waving their hands in the air, having a good time”.

Mike Snell.Credit: Eddie Jim

That means getting racegoers to let their hair down, which Snell jokes he does by winning them over with his baby blues.

“It can’t just be bougie, bougie, bougie, you know. We’re here to have fun.”

Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers was spotted partying in the tent with his wife Cate on Derby Day.

Wow! A $76.80 winner there, with Garachico finding the post first in the Australian Heritage Cup over 2800m.

A first Melbourne Cup victory for Dominic Sutton with a horse from Ballarat via France, who outstayed them up the long Flemington straight.

A really rough result for the favourites there, with a perfect ride from Bill Egan.

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s Newfoundland finished second and Whisky on the Hill third.

It’s not far from the Cup now. The track looks perfect, the crowd is building and the weather is bliss.

Like many international celebrities before him, Bob Geldof was left feeling slightly bemused and bewildered by the Melbourne Cup and Birdcage experience. Seated at a table inside Crown’s towering three-storey marquee with a glass of red wine, the Irish singer, songwriter and political activist said it was his first time at the Melbourne Cup.

“I’ve been to the English versions, you know,” he said. “But no, I mean this is crazy, it’s bonkers. It’s like you’ve walked into this Christmas pantomime, a misplaced Christmas pantomime.”

Sir Bob Geldof chats with Age journalist Cara Waters at the Melbourne Cup.Credit: Penny Stephens

The 72-year-old said when he was a boy growing up in Ireland, he used to attend the races and bet regularly.

“I just liked the whole atmosphere, the old bookies, all these old lags with the bags and bits of paper, I liked all that,” he said.

Geldof said he had one tip for a 50-to-one bet “so that’s worth the punt”, but would not disclose the name of the horse to CBD.

“You and your bloody readers will slash it down to even money,” he said.

Geldof will be back in Australia next year for a one-man show, and is also preparing for the 40th anniversary of Band Aid and Live Aid, along with the 50th anniversary of the Boomtown Rats.

“So coming out to do a one-man show, telling stories, playing music, that’s actually a break in the chaos,” he said.

Geldof may not like Mondays, but it seems he may be a fan of the first Tuesday in November.