Long odds, but Prize Lady's a little stayer

Fairfax Media

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Graeme Sanders likens his chances in the Melbourne Cup to the announcement by flight attendants.

"In the unlikely event of an emergency ..."

Sanders is joking and in the unlikely event of Prize Lady winning today's $A5.5 million ($NZ6.38 million) Cup, he will be laughing heartily.

But it may not be prove as unlikely as the $A151 that Australian bookmakers had her at on Sunday.

Unlike many in the field, she has shown she can run the 3200m distance of tomorrow's Cup and a couple of people liked those odds, hitting the bookies with bets of $A1500 and $A1000, and pushing her odds in to $A101.

Even that is tempting.

Sanders calls her a "rough chance", but said if it was wet tomorrow that chance would improve markedly.

"She's just a wee thing and an out and out stayer."

The Cup is a big family outing for Sanders and his wife Gael.

He trains in partnership with son Mark, who married his long-time partner Megan Gore only last Friday.

Before Mark joined him, his daughter Debbie was his training partner, but she stepped down to raise a family. Her husband Mark Sweeney rides Prize Lady today.

They will all be on hand, along with Sanders' other son Craig and his wife Tania.

Sweeney is one of racing's survivors, returning twice after serious injuries that would have deterred others from continuing in the game.

He rode Senator to win an Auckland Cup in only his second year of riding, but missed out to Lance O'Sullivan when the horse ran fourth in the Melbourne Cup.

He finally gets his opportunity today and said Prize Lady's stamina would be in her favour.

"The fact that she has proven she can win at her only two starts at the distance puts her in the top 15 percent of genuine chances in the race, I reckon," Sweeney told NZPA.

- NZPA