KEY POINTS:
Noel Harris has no right to be riding in today's A$5 million Melbourne Cup.
He is a freak of human genetics.
Kilo for kilo, jockeys are the world's toughest athletes.
They need the strength of an Olympic wrestler, the sensitive hands of a brain surgeon and an exquisite sense of timing.
Remarkably, at coming up to 53, Noel Harris still has all those attributes.
Most topline jockeys do.
But one thing few can match is Harris' unbelievable sense of balance.
Perhaps that's why he wanted to be a gymnast. You have to believe he would have been a sensation.
Harris is rapidly closing in on 2000 career winners, a rarely-achieved magical figure for New Zealand jockeys.
It will be a wonderful moment for Harris when that is achieved, but that's just a number - today is the Melbourne Cup.
There is no comparison.
Only two thoughts will pierce Harris' mind as he walks New Zealand mare Princess Coup through the Flemington roses this afternoon.
One will be the game plan, which champion trainer Mark Walker says he'll leave entirely to Harris.
The other will be his father, former outstanding rider Jock Harris.
This afternoon Harris will be the oldest jockey in the Melbourne Cup - 34 years ago he was the youngest.
It's his life's regret that, for his father's sake, he wasn't able to deliver the Harris-trained Glengowan home the 1973 Melbourne Cup winner, being beaten a cigarette packet by Gala Supreme.
The then 18-year-old was slaughtered in Australia for his ride.
But those were the days when New Zealand jockeys were regularly ridiculed across the Tasman.
When Brent Thomson, Jim and Larry Cassidy, Greg Childs, Brian York and a few others relocated to win jockeys' premierships in most Australian states, the Kiwi-bashing stopped.
What Harris has rarely said is that it was Glengowan's dodgy front leg that made him race erratically as he fought out a desperate final 200m with Gala Supreme, not Harris' inexperience as the Australian press insisted.
He didn't care about being beaten that day from a personal perspective, but he did for his father.
"I knew I could, hopefully, always come back and have a chance to win a Melbourne Cup, but I knew that would be dad's last chance to do it.
"I really felt for him."
There have been a handful of Melbourne Cup chances since for Harris and he has filled a minor place.
In the past two years he has kept his career going to achieve the magical 2000 wins, but thought his chances of riding in another Melbourne Cup were zero.
That changed when he landed the recent Princess Coup winning ride in the $2 million Kelt Capital Stakes, thinking he was also engaged for the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double.
Typical of Harris' relaxed attitude he didn't blue when he was replaced for both races by Australian jockey Glen Boss.
It was that attitude which won him the ride back when the Hong Kong Jockey Club would not release Boss back to Australia after he'd ridden a brilliant race to finish third on Princess Coup in the A$2.5 million Caulfield Cup.
Noel Harris is an institution. On raceday he tells an endless stream of jokes, one gold earring jiggling as he belly-laughs and puffs on a fag.
Mark Walker is pleased he's legging Harris up today, particularly after what looked an ordinary ride by the widely experienced Kerrin McEvoy when Princess Coup finished second in Saturday's A$750,000 Mackinnon Stakes.
"Noel's such a relaxed rider - the sort you need for a Melbourne Cup," says Walker.
McEvoy has already won a Melbourne Cup on Brew, but he pressed the button way too soon on Saturday.
That's not a mistake Harris will make.
Harris knows to the stride when to launch a horse.
He can't tell you how he knows, he just knows. It's what separates genius riders from good riders.
His timing on Princess Coup to win the Kelt Capital was sublime.
Harris has promised a big whitebait and crayfish party when he gets his 2000th winner early next year.
The ex-Woodville Maori boy will host an even bigger one if he can get Princess Coup's nose in front in the final 20m this afternoon.
