Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

The first Tuesday in November brings "the race that stops two nations", with the Melbourne Cup grabbing the attention of punters on both sides of the ditch.

Ten of thousands of once a year punters will dust the cobwebs from their wallets to back their fancies at the TAB or enter an office or pub sweep.

This year will see the 156th running of the great race, with the world of today a far cry from inaugural Melbourne Cup in 1861.

Patrons who ventured to the first Melbourne Cup went by horse and carriage or by boat up the Maribyrnong River to the Flemington course.

The first Cup was an eventful affair where, of the seventeen starters, one bolted at the start and three fell during the running of the race.

The first Melbourne Cup was won by New South Wales outsider Archer, who legend said walked over 500 miles from Nowra to race in the Cup.

The reality was Archer travelled south by Steamer from Sydney.

An interesting aside to the first Melbourne Cup, was that the secretary of the Victorian Racing Club issued members with two ladies tickets for the day on the premise "that where ladies went, men would follow" - which hasn't changed in the world since 1861.

Over the first hundred years of the Melbourne Cup, kiwi horses would travel the Tasman Sea to plunder the big race spoils.

The best known Cup winner from the shaky shores was Phar Lap, who survived an attempt to shoot him before Cup day, to blitz the field in 1930.

New Zealand born thoroughbreds won many of the Melbourne Cups in the first hundred years, with Waikato owned and trained Hi Jinx winning the Centennial Cup in 1960, from fellow kiwi horses Howsie and Ilumquh finishing second and third.

Kiwi raiders on the Cup continued during 1970's and 1980's, however, the dawn of the new Millennium brought a new dimension to the big two miler.

Huge prize money and easily available air transport, brought European horses down to the antipodes to challenge for the Melbourne Cup.

This writer has a 1967 Melbourne Cup racebook, which illustrates the huge increase in prize money which drives the European invasion.

The 1967 Melbourne Cup had a stake of $60,000, with the 2016 race worth $3.6 million to the winner from a total prize package of $6 million.

After early European success, wealthy Australian owners turned to Europe to purchase potential Cup winners.

Today's race will see just one New Zealand trained horse and just a couple of kiwi breds which is a far cry the Centennial Cup.

There is likely to be a tear in the eye of many hardened race goers, with the running of the Cup without the presence of the Cups King, Bart Cummings.

The legendary thoroughbred maestro, who passed away in August 2015, trained 12 winners of the Melbourne Cup.

Light Fingers in 1965 was JB Cummings first Melbourne Cup winner with his last coming with Viewed in 2008.

To make his achievements even more remarkable, he trained both the winner and runner-up in 1965, 1966, 1974, 1975 and 1991.

After the disaster of his AFL and NFL finals betting foray, Sideline Sid has put away his crystal ball in an attempt to pick this year's winner.

Putting the field on a dartboard and throwing a lucky dart is probably the most likely way to nail the winner in an extremely even field.

However, Sid fancies the chances of Hartnell with champion kiwi jockey James McDonald aboard and will put a few of his hard earned dollars on the horse.