Jockey F Foley rode the M Hobbs-trained Sasanof to victory by more than two lengths, missing the race record by half a second with a time of 3min 27.75sec.
MacSmith is the daughter of Bob Stead whose father was Wilfred Stead.
"She's arranged tickets from the Victoria club, arranged our accommodation and she's told me where I have to be at certain times," says Bary with a glint in her eye of the $7 million feature race that lures top thoroughbreds from around the world to compete over 3200m.
For the record, the 1916 race was delayed to the following Saturday (only postponed for the second time in its history) because of a downpour.
On raceday, according to www.races.co.au website, Stead sold a third of the horse to his bosom pal, ES Luttrell, so he could share the winning experience but reportedly offered to buy back the gelding if he didn't win.
The prize that day was 9205 and Sasanof's odds of crossing the line first were 12:1.
The word-of-mouth family history of the 1916 acquisition is sketchy but Bary suspects her ancestors had their ears glued to the radio in New Zealand on what transpired at Flemington that Saturday.
Foaled in New Zealand in 1913 by breeder TM Wilford, Sasanof was sold for 400 guineas. She went on to amass career earnings of 20,770 before dying in the Bay.
Bary has a framed photo of the horse and jockey Hector Gray taking pride of place in her lounge.
Her grandfather, Wilfred Stead, moved up to the Bay in 1920. He left behind the cup for his son and Bary's father, the late Alex Stead, a sheep/cattle farmer who took a shine to dog trials rather then horse racing.
Over the years Wilfred Stead had won other gold cups that were later shared out among other children.
He also bred Catalogue, the 1938 cup winner.
Alex's brother, the late Bob Stead, a Hastings property owner, followed the family tradition of horse racing.
Ann Bary's great-grandfather, the late George Gatonby Stead, who died in the early 1900s, was a stalwart in the racing industry and also showed a penchant for punting (although giving it up in the late 1800s), something his successors didn't engage in on a serious scale.
Bary and Hastings racing stalwart Tim Symes are first cousins. Symes' father's sisters, Jean and Rua, married the Stead brothers - Alex and Bob, respectively.
Ann Bary is the mother of Hastings champion trainer John Bary, of the Jimmy Choux fame.
"I'll take a bus and train from her home in Sydney down to Melbourne two days before the Melbourne Cup - Monday shopping, Tuesday cup and back home to New Zealand on the Wednesday or Thursday," she says with a laugh.
Bary doesn't have a clue what she'll wear but believes the weather forecast will dictate that on Tuesday, November 1.
"I'll find something but I'll have to go hunting in Melbourne on the Monday to see if I can find a hat because it isn't the easiest thing to cart on an aeroplane or train or bus."
Quietly Bary was hopeful she was someday going to attend the Melbourne Cup but deep down she has harboured a more burning desire.
"I was hoping I was going to be an owner of something running on the cup day someday," she says as son John grins.
"It's probably the nearest to 100 years after my grandfather has won the cup so it is an honour to go over there to have the 1916 cup there and feel very proud to have it there.
"John's letting it go from Hawke's Bay so we're all going to have a lovely time," she says of the 18-carat three-handle, three-legged rose bowl-shaped cup, the first gold one to be awarded to the winners.
In 2010, the $175,000 18-carat Emirates Melbourne Cup was doing the rounds in the country and a friend of John Bary's took the 1916 cup to Waikato. To the family's surprise hardly anyone knew it existed and recounted more photos were taken with the three-legged species than the current one.
The inaugural cup had sat in the vault of a Hastings firm, Murray Roberts, because no one wanted to insure it in those days.
"Dad thought what the hell and went and brought it out from there one day because he wanted us to enjoy it at home.
"The house got burgled twice but no one took it.
"Mind you, you'd get caught if you did and tried selling it," Ann Bary had said in the 2010 interview.
She handed down the cup to John Bary after her brother, John Stead, died of polio in 1952.
Ann Bary's biggest race meeting to date is finding a perch at Tattenham Corner at the Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey, in England on derby day in 1960.
"I was in England tripping around so we decided we'd better go see the derby."
Her other fondest memories include watching Eiffel Tower winning the Wellington Cup in 1965 at Trentham. Bill Hazlett owned the horse and was a good friend of her father.
On the same day, she shared the joy of watching her father, Alex, and his brother, Bob, win the Telegraph with mare Starlit.
"The day [April 2013] that John trained and won the Hawke's Bay Cup with Survived was another exciting day," says Bary including the accomplishments of Recite who was euthanised on April 9 this year after breaking an ankle during a group one race at Te Aroha.
No doubt her couple of triumphs as a steeplechase trainer have also left an indelible mark in her career.
"They were exciting but very little and minor when compared with the Melbourne Cup."
Bary's convinced the family winnings from the 1916 race haven't changed her family's life at all.
