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Held at a racecourse that could just as easily have been sold off as a graveyard, the Caulfield Cup boasts a tradition almost as old as the Melbourne Cup.
Many trainers say the race is even harder to win, with the best of the middle-distance horses coming up against the hardened stayers.
Bart Cummings has won six Caulfield Cups more than anyone else - but five short of his Melbourne Cup haul.
The 2400 metres of the Caulfield Cup is 800 metres less than the famous 3200 at Flemington and sometimes a perfect lead in to the Melbourne Cup but more often than a not a coveted prize on its own.
The Caulfield Cup was first run in the autumn of 1879, 18 years after the first Melbourne Cup, at the track obtained by the Victoria Amateur Racing Club through a Crown grant.
A racetrack had been fashioned from on the site in 1859 amid the sand hills, heath and snake-infested swamps.
The land had been little used and one of the proposed plans was to turn it into a cemetery before the race club came along. In 1881, the Caulfield Cup was switched to the spring, cementing its place as the first of three big features of the Melbourne carnival.
A few months ago, Weekend Hussler's trainer Ross McDonald was talking up plans for Australia's Horse of the Year to aim for all three but now concedes the Melbourne Cup may be a step too far.
Tomorrow's favourite Weekend Hussler ran the worst race of his life in the recent Turnbull Stakes (2000m) which was his first attempt beyond 1800 metres.
McDonald reckons he has worked out why he ran so poorly and is certain he will make amends tomorrow.
But The Melbourne Cup is a different matter.
"There are a lot of things we want to do with the horse next year. We want to take him overseas and the Melbourne Cup just might take too much out of him."
- AAP
