Melbourne Cup: Bart will be there, paramedic and all

Bart Cummings (centre) has already trained 12 Melbourne Cup winners and has the hot favourite today. Photo / Getty Images

If Bart Cummings gets to Flemington today - and the odds are shorter than the horse he'll be there to see - he won't be alone.

The 82-year-old will be accompanied by a critical-care nurse, a paramedic and an ambulance officer.

For Bart - the surname is superfluous - not being on course on Melbourne Cup day is unthinkable.

The octogenarian booked himself out of hospital on Sunday afternoon and was in great spirits as he anticipated his wonder horse So You Think providing him with a remarkable 13th victory in the A$6 million ($7.7 million) Melbourne Cup.

You would like to think one of the great horse trainers was as chipper as the horse he has developed into an international headline grabber.

But he's not.

Bouts with pneumonia and a broken hip in the past eight months have taken an understandable toll on a once seemingly indestructible personality.

But thoroughbreds are all about the condition of the horse on the big day, not the connections.

Bart knows it and no one can get them more ready and with more precise timing than this product of a long line of Irish horsemen.

When last year's Melbourne Cup was delayed by five minutes, Bart said: "I'm not happy about this, my horses are trained to the minute."

Yes, a typical glib one-liner, but one with a lot of truth.

No nation reveres champions more than Australia.

The Aussies have taken So You Think to their hearts.

The 23 opponents from eight countries can't beat So You Think on class today.

The only way he can be beaten is by bad luck or an inability to see out the extreme distance of 3200m.

If he wins, the noise from the expected 100,000 punters on course will be something to remember.

Much of it will be for an 82-year-old sitting 250m from the winning post.

And he'll deserve it.

For the record

Bart Cummings' Melbourne Cup wins:

* Light Fingers (1965)
* Galilee (1966)
* Red Handed (1967)
* Think Big (1974, 1975)
* Gold And Black (1977)
* Hyperno (1979)
* Kingston Rule (1990)
* Let's Elope (1991)
* Saintly (1996)
* Rogan Josh (1999)
* Viewed (2008)