Donna Demaio: Melbourne Cup correspondent speaks ahead of the race

Smokin' Romans and Torranzino are preparing to carry the hopes for New Zealand-trained horses set as the 24 hopefuls for today's Melbourne Cup are saddled up at Flemington.

It's a decline of two Kiwi runners from last year's race, while six set out for the 3200 metre journey in 2022.

Melbourne Cup correspondent Donna Demaio says there's concerns about rain impacting the race.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are less than an hour away now from the
big Melbourne Cup race at five o'clock. There's ten million
dollars up for grabs for the winner. Celebrities and punters
have been flooding into Flemington. One of them is our
Melbourne Cup correspondent, Donna de Mayo.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Who's with us? Now? Hey, Donna?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Hello? Am I a celebrity or a punter? Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mate? One hundred percent of celebrity If somebody else. If
I was talking to somebody else, I'd say, who did
you spot? That's a Donna? And then they tell me
what you're wearing.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
So it's so nice to speak with you.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Yes, I am at Flemington and I have been coming
to the races for I've plopped up decades, to be honest,
so it's pretty lovely to be back here. I tried
to find a quiet spot. As you know, tens of
thousands of people come in to be trackside for the
big event what they call the cultural institution, that is
the Melbourne Cup, which has been running since eighteen sixty one.

(00:50):
So we're up to it's one hundred and sixty five
one hundred and sixty fifth iteration. Now it's look, it's
a wet track. Now I know nothing about racing, just quietly,
so I can tell you that it's a wet track
and it's the first time since twenty nineteen that there
hasn't been a late scratching. So there's going to be
twenty four horses racing. And there's a couple of very

(01:10):
interesting little insights that I can give you, and that
is that Jamie Melham is a jockey that won the
Corefield Cup. Now she is absolutely desperate to beat her husband,
who is also a jockey and is.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Also racing and running in the Melbourne Cup. Would you believe?

Speaker 4 (01:28):
His name is Ben Malham and he's on a New
Zealand horse. Would you believe called Smoke in Romans?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
How's that?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That's cool? What's the weather doing?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Though?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Because it was forecast abay.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
That wit oh, Look has never asked a Melburnie to
talk about the weather because I could just go go
on and on and on. So the weather yesterday it
was absolutely teeming. It was virtually torrential and we had
many many millimeters of rain and it was awful and
the Weather Bureau said, look, it may even rain during
the race. Now, thankfully, up until this moment that i'm

(01:59):
speaking to you, there has been Oh my gosh, you're
not gonna believe it. It's just started spitting. As I
said it.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Oh, I'm gonna have to run for cover.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
I'm actually wearing a head piece that is going to
not do well in the rain that was made for
me by Melbourne milliner lovely Renee Anderson.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
So I'm gonna go. I'm literally running for cover as
I speak to you. There you go.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
It started spitting. You heard it first from the Melbourne Cup. Look,
hopefully it doesn't get torrential though it's Look, it's very dark.
I'm looking up to the sky. There's little patches of blue.
But unfortunately, yes, and look, I am fortunate, Heather that
I am in an area where all the fancy marquees,
the Birdcage marquees, so I can pop into Lexus, which

(02:42):
has got to let this triple story amazing space. Mind you,
that's a rooftop bar that no one will want to
be on it from now. And there's also the gh
Moom Marquee, which I tell you is fancy as and
as you know, people do like a shampas or seventeen
at the Melbourne Cup, so so I do have some
where to run to after I stopped speaking with you.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay, now, Donna, have you seen anybody famous?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Okay, look, I'm gonna say it. It's a little bit
light on celebs this year and it's a very interesting thing.
So on Saturday for Derby Day, we had Michelle Monahan.
Who's Michelle Monahan. She's a Hollywood star. She was in
Mission Impossible three. She was in White Lotus, which we
all love. I don't know if you do, but it
was fantastic, fantastic show. So we had Michelle monahtane Now
sadly today on Melbourne Cup Day, the biggest name that

(03:30):
I've spotted is Ossie tennis starf a Fanassi cockon Arcus.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Are you familiar with him?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
No? No idea what you're talking about?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
There you go there, point made.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, Okay, it's.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
A little bit lighter.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
It's a little bit light on in regard to celebs,
but I think it ramps up again for Oaks Day
and the weekend of the Saturday Race day. So there's
actually four days in the Melbourne Cup carnival and so
they kind of spread spread them out a little bit
thin lately.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
How you're part of the world of the weekend and
was briefly tempted to go to Ricky Martin on Saturday,
and then my concert club friends were like, nah, he's lame.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
What was it like because you went, how.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Was it come on?

Speaker 4 (04:11):
Well, actually, Ricky Martin was supposed to perform at the Races,
but there was a little rumor that went around that
he wanted to sing all his songs in Spanish.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Now I don't know.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
If that's true, but it was reported as such, and
then he didn't perform. But I'm thankful that I went
to his consot because he was absolutely brilliant.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
He's still got it, He's got all the moves.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
He came out and it was everyone was up dancing
for that ninety minutes. The only criticism is he only
played for nineteen minutes, and I don't know, do you
think that's a little bit short for a concert?

Speaker 2 (04:40):
No, I think I think I think that's actually about
bang on. I don't think o Asis win.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
For much longer than that. Donna, it's good to talk
to you, mate. Go and look after your fascinator or
your hat or whatever it is. Donna de Mayo, our
Melbourne Cup correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
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Speaker 1 (04:54):
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