Who is the greatest race horse to race in the Melbourne cup?

Question

well phar lap will be one but then there is the tough makybe diva what do u think

Answer 1

I've read that many experts consider Carbine, who won the race in 1890, one of the all-time greats.  As always with horses that raced at a time when no one now alive saw them, you can't really evaluate that against winners of this era-- sort of like trying to compare the great champion Colin with Secretariat:  all you can do is venture an opinion.

Phar Lap is in somewhat the same position, although respected horsemen who saw him race here in the US and then lived long enough to see other great champions were of the opinion he was one of the great ones.  I don't doubt that he could give a race and then some to a lot of horses that people consider among the greats.

Rain Lover, who won in 1968 and 1969, has to get a vote as a two-time winner of the Cup, no mean feat;  At Talaq (1986), who was a well-travelled winner, was certainly a good one; 1997 winner Might and Power (love that name!) was an awesome winner; and the incomparable Makybe Diva, who raced her way into history as a Cup winner three years in a row, are all worthies.

I think I have to go with the Diva as perhaps the greatest ever.  I don't know, maybe it's just that she was an anachronism, a great stayer in a world gone to the brilliant milers and stretched-out sprinters.  Maybe the Cup itself, at 3200 meters, just 61 feet 6 inches short of two miles (why did they have to go metric on this race?), is an anachronism:  who breeds for such races anymore?  Whatever, I don't think that we'll see the Diva's feat of a three-peat duplicated anytime soon.

List of Melbourne Cup winners, for those who are interested:

http://au.geocities.com/melbournecups/ho...

Answer 2

Yes. Makybe Diva would have to be the next best after Phar Lap.  Love the movie "Phar Lap".  Have the "Legend of Phar Lap" on single record.