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MELBOURNE, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Almandin has won Australia's premier horse race, the Melbourne Cup, delivering owner Lloyd Williams his fifth win in the race.
Almandin, a six-year old German horse trained in Australia by Robert Hickmott, engaged in a duel with Heartbreak City in the final straight of the 3,200-meter race but he had too much speed in the final 100 meters and won the 4.7 million U.S. dollar Cup by a nose.
Lloyd Williams, the owner of Almandin as well as three other stayers in the race, became the first owner, trainer or jockey to have won the Cup more than four times as Hickmott and jockey Kerrin McEvoy each won their second Cup.
"It's a dream come true," McEvoy said after the race.
"I like these staying races, and I love the Melbourne Cup."
"He was there the whole way, travelled great, what a buzz."
Hartnell, the favorite to win the race and only Australian-bred horse in the 24-horse field, finished a clear third but represents another failure by the Godolphin stable, the world's largest horse stable, and owner Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates (UEA) and Prime Minister (PM) of Dubai, to win the Cup.
Godolphin has invested more than 840 million U.S. dollars in horse racing in Australia alone since 1998 in pursuit of the elusive Cup but the endeavour remains fruitless.
The race, which was watched by more than 100,000 attendees at Flemington racecourse in addition to millions of Australians on television and approximately 20 million people in China for the first time, was anointed a classic running of the 156-year old race soon after the completion.
Despite predictions by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) that the race could be marred by bad weather the rain held off until a few minutes after the race finished.
