A feat rarely accomplished, Williams was speaking confidently about the chances of a double. “With 55.5kg I think he can win a Caulfield Cup, be penalised and not have too much weight to win a Melbourne Cup. Whereas Fame Game, if he won a Caulfield Cup and was then penalised it’s unlikely that he’d be able to win a Melbourne Cup.”

Hokko Brave is currently priced up at $17.00 with Sportsbet to win the 2015 Melbourne Cup and is exactly the same price with Sportsbet to win the Caulfield Cup. The same bookmaker has Hokko Brave at $67.00 to do the Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup double.

Current favourite for both races is another Japanese raider, Fame Game, who has been allocated top weight for the race that stops a nation in November.

Admire Rakti, on the back of a Caulfield Cup win that has had pundits bemoaning the lack of staying talent in Australian, and that has probably has Australian trainers looking very closely at themselves despite the brave public faces, is the favourite for the 2014 Melbourne Cup, the top-weight, and a strong chance of taking the Cup back to Japan with him.

Protectionist was the favourite himself at one stage in the (admittedly quite long) build-up to the Melbourne Cup, and he’s a very nice-looking European stayer indeed. Well travelled, and well able to take the journey to Australia in his stride, the German veteran can be relied on to give a good account of himself tomorrow.

Frisky prospect Lucia Valentina was caught outside in the Caulfield Cup, but still managed to come home in third place, so with Barrier 2 drawn for her in tomorrow’s Melbourne Cup she could provide the real threat to Admire Rakti. There are more than a few punters throwing their money behind her, and more than a few pundits picking, her, too.

And finally there’s the potential fairytale story of this year’s Melbourne Cup – the remarkable journey within a year that has been made by Signoff from debut to Melbourne Cup, and to some of the shortest of the Racing odds for the big race, too. He’s very, very green in comparison to an experienced field around him, but there’s no substitute for talent, and he carries 51kg tomorrow. What a story it will make if he can grab Cup glory!

The favourite will go from Barrier 8, and connections of Admire Rakti seemed pretty pleased by that result – perhaps there’s a feeling that with a draw that puts him in the mix, Admire Rakti will have the class to see out the win. Signoff’s draw out in Barrier 16 saw a slight easing of the betting behind him, but he’s still going to be a popular choice for punters come tomorrow’s race, and if he can come from 16 and win it, it will just go down as another detail in the fairytale. Meanwhile, we’ve seen Sea Moon withdraw in the last day or so thanks to a cracked hoof that has ruled him out, and a couple of other short-odds options in the Racing odds we’re seeing on Sportsbet right now haven’t shifted all that much after the draw. Protectionist will go from Barrier 11, whilst Lucia Valentina will go from number 2. Whatever happens, you can expect both of those to want to have a say in the race at some point, and they are both real chances to win it.

So make sure you check back in on those Racing odds before they jump off – there’s still time for things to change a little bit, but it looks like it will be Protectionist and Lucia Valentina trailing in the betting behind the favourite Admire Rakti and the young upstart Signoff. We’re excited just thinking about it, so imagine what sort of state we’ll be in come tomorrow!

It’s Caulfield Cup winner and 2014 Melbourne Spring sensation Admire Rakti who’s the favourite just at the moment for the Melbourne Cup, and he’s just the sort of big strong stayer who could win it. There has been the excitement of a late surge into the race by untested young talent Signoff, who won Saturday’s Lexus Stakes to book his place in the Melbourne Cup line-up, and he’s seeing lots of support and some fairly short odds, and there are a couple of other leading lights in those Racing odds, but mostly there’s a strong international flavour to the field – a record-equalling 11 overseas horses will jump off on Tuesday in the Melbourne Cup – so even if it isn’t Admire Rakti who wins it, the trophy could still be heading into international hands.

There have been some rumblings already from Australia-based trainers about the apparent gulf in class between our home-grown stayers and horses like Admire Rakti, who apparently falls outside the top twenty horses in his homeland, and this year sees a concerted bid by the Godolphin stables to win a Melbourne Cup. You would think that success from Admire Rakti would encourage more of his compatriots to make the trip to Australia, and if Godolphin are frustrated this year, you would suspect they won’t just give up. So could this be the start of a few years of overseas dominance of Australia’s biggest races? Or will Australia’s trainers rise to the challenge? Whatever happens, we’ll have all the Racing odds for you as we get them, for the 2014 Melbourne Cup and beyond…

First up is crowd favourite and scarred campaigner Red Cadeaux, who has been so tantalisingly close to Melbourne Cup success in the past that his connections will be praying hard for him to finally cross the line ahead of the field. With plenty of talent, bags of heart and enough experience to be unfazed by the whole day, Red Cadeaux isn’t just going to be popular with overly-emotional punters, either…

Willing Foe is at odds of $34.00 on Sportsbet right now, but you could probably argue that he’s the pick of the two Godolphin stayers in the 2014 Melbourne Cup field – which might mean he represents value over stablemate Cavalryman. The folks at Godolphin think he has what it takes at this distance and on this sort of track – do you think they’ve got it right?

Araldo and My Ambivalent are seeing odds of $31.00 and $41.00 respectively, but either one could be a player in the race this year. My Ambivalent is a difficult commodity to predict – she’s full of character and she’s a little bit out of left field, but she does have her injury troubles, and it’s possible that we won’t know how she’s pulled up until very late in the proceedings: she faces a fitness test on Tuesday morning before she can race, and punters might be a little wary of her for that reason. Araldo, meanwhile, is a horse who ran fifth behind Admire Rakti and Lucia Valentina in the Caulfield Cup, so he’s going to be up with the pace on Tuesday, you would think, and right in the mix if he can see any sort of improvement from his run two weekends ago.