Leading Victorian racehorse owner Lloyd Williams loves nothing more than winning the Melbourne Cup. The proud Victorian believes the Cup carnival is a bigger deal than the AFL grand final or the Formula One grand prix and brings the state and the country more kudos and economic benefit than any comparable event.
Williams has won the Cup a record five times and is hoping that his 2016 winner Almandin is on course for a repeat tilt at Australian racing's greatest prize after being given more than six months to get over his exertions last spring.
The German import gave his all and narrowly defeated the ill-fated Heartbreak City in a driving finish at Flemington last November. But he hasn't been seen on a racecourse since.
That is, says Williams, not due to any problems. Far from it.
The owner decided to give the galloper an extended break, knowing he would have to carry far more weight and face potentially even tougher opposition if he was to become the first back-to-back scorer since Makybe Diva won the second of her three Cups.
"Almandin looks very well. He's a bit above himself still. We haven't trimmed him up yet, but towards August or so he will be looking a bit more serious than he is today," Williams said at a Melbourne Cup carnival launch at his prestigious Macedon Lodge property on Tuesday.
"He is in good order, we didn't race him in the autumn. It's one of my theories, to give them an easier time. Hopefully we can bring him back for a second go."
Almandin was a classic "beat the handicapper" sort last year when he won a few lead-up races, just enough to get him into the Cup field with a low weight.
After he won the Bart Cummings on Turnbull Stakes day at the start of October, Team Williams opted to keep him fresh and fit in training at Macedon rather than risk getting a penalty for the Cup. The strategy worked when Kerrin McEvoy guided him to a narrow win over the Irish challenger.
"Weight will play a big part with him, it will depend on how much weight he has to carry, especially in this day and age," said Williams, who knows how much the Cup has changed since its internationalisation in the past 30 years.
It generally attracts a classier field than when he was winning it with gallopers Just A Dash and What A Nuisance in the early 1980s. He believes that Almandin might be six or eight lengths superior to Just a Dash.
"If you go back to [dual winners] Rain Lover and Think Bigs days, it was a totally different race. Then it was a handicap, now its an international race almost for set weight horses running in a handicap."
"Almandin will run maybe two or three times. He will probably have to go a set weights or weight for age programme."
Williams' great success rate and the fact he has a lot of money enabling him to buy promising stayers from the Irish Coolmore operation should not delude punters into thinking Cup success is an easy feat, he stresses.
"It's pretty hard this race, it's a very draining sort of race, it takes such a long time, the preparation, with these staying horses.
"If you get one there you are thrilled. We ran four in the race last year, but you live in hope."
Williams describes his current contenders as an even bunch. "Aloft is a nice staying horse, he has only had two runs in the autumn. He will be a horse that will come on but a lot can happen," he said.
"Crocodile Rock is a nice horse. Both are ex Ballydoyle [Coolmore] horses bred to stay. Kilimanjaro, he's a nice horse, Hans Holbein too. They are horses that could step up. If we haven't got something stepping up in the Turnbull or the Bart Cummings we are in trouble.
Williams might have been a hard-nosed businessman but this is one event that taps into his emotions.
"I do I get a tear in my eye when the horses came back, I do it hard after those races. With staying horses I think about them for two years. Almandin was two-and-a-half years in our keeping. He did a tendon and had to be nursed back.
"We could start with 15 or 20 horses up here and there's no certainty that we will get one to the race.
"I am a Melburnian ... I love it, it's been part of my life. There's $450 million of economic benefit to the state. We can bring events here that will cost us money to bring, but this is our own event.
"It's like the AFL grand final ... the grand final is not as big as the Melbourne Cup carnival, but it's also a homegrown event."
