Melbourne Cup: Second just ain't enough

Not everyone who goes to Flemington shares in the glory. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes got it right when he shouted to 99,251 mad AFL fans at the MCG Grand Final entertainment: "There ain't no second prize here."

He could have been talking about the Melbourne Cup.

Actually, the owner of the runner-up in today's Melbourne Cup takes home a cheque for A$835,000.

They also get to take home the feeling that they'd stood on the doorstep of greatness.

And someone slammed the door.

She's Archie, Rising Fear, Vansittart, Second Wind, Sarcherie and Holiday Waggon are not exactly household names of the turf.

They don't have the same ring to them as Makybe Diva, At Talaq, Baghdad Note, Phar Lap, Peter Pan and Think Big, the horses that relegated them to second in the world's greatest thoroughbred staying test.

Probably the greatest example of not finishing second is remarkable South African golfer Gary Player, whose second passion, by coincidence, is breeding top-class racehorses.

Player was born with a body that matured at 170cm.

They told him to forget about serious golf - with a 68kg frame, he'd never be able to drive a ball as far as the professionals.

They didn't know Gary Player. Instead of listening, Player for years tortured his body with big weights in the gym and developed strength and fitness that saw him eventually outdriving the pros they said he'd never match.

It led to him competing in a record 52 US Masters and another record 46 consecutive British Opens.

For all his graciousness, Player intensely disliked finishing second.

He once said: "When you finish second the only ones that remember are your wife and your dog.

"And only then if you've got a good wife and a good dog."

Someone is going to finish second in this afternoon's A$5.5 million Melbourne Cup. But no one's that keen on it.