Lloyd Williams has never been afraid to put his hand up to buy a racehorse; he has spent a fortune in the quest for racing’s greatest reward, the Melbourne Cup.

Green Moon’s win gave Williams his fourth Melbourne Cup in 31 years, the first being Just A Dash in 1981, the others were What A Nuisance, 1985, and Efficient, in 2007.

Williams, a former V R C committeeman, rarely goes to the races now, preferring the lounge at his city penthouse, yesterday it was in the comfort of his palatial home at Mount Macedon.

Son Nick, the operations manager on race days, was ecstatic for his father, and all the people employed at the farm that put in so much time and effort, it was a great result.

“I will have to have another look to fully appreciate the win, we are over the moon” he said.

Brett Prebble flew in from Hong Kong to take the winning ride on Green Moon, who was always travelling well in a forward position, while there were a couple of incidents of interference, he escaped all of that, having an uninterrupted passage all the way

Green Moon winning the Melbourne Cup

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In fact both of the Williams runners, Green Moon and Mourayan, were both handy to the lead, with the latter finishing seventh, picking up $125,000 in prize money.

The win was a bonanza for bookmakers with Grey Moon paying $20.00, with last year’s winner, Dunaden, favourite at $7.00, Americain and Mount Athos were prominent in betting, starting at $7.50 .

There was not a lot of support for Green Moon after failing in the Cox Plate, with rumours circulating he had a problem and would be spelled.

Glencadam Gold took up the running, as he did in the Caulfield Cup, and faded out well before the home turn, yet in yesterday’s Cup he led well into the straight to finish seventh

Fiorente was impressive, running second, beaten a length at his first start here, Gai is sure to be spruiking him for next year, but a lot of water will go the under the bridge between now and then.

Both of Luca Cumani representatives performed fairly, both earning prize money, with Mount Athos finishing fifth and My Quest For Peace tenth, but both were missing at the business end of the race.

The big disappointment was Dunaden, at no stage of the race did he look like playing any positive role, he was near last for most of the trip, the spark was missing, maybe he left it behind when he won the Caulfield Cup.

He raced like a tired horse, one who would have preferred to be at home in the stable, rather than lumping 59 kg around at Flemington, over 3200 metres.

Americain, winner of the Melbourne Cup two years ago, and slaughtered when he ran fourth last year, again he did his best, but sadly his best was not good enough  

Trainers and jockeys are so quick to quote a horse and how well it is going to win, in the end the horse knows more and he or she are not saying.

Duchess of Cornwall presenting Nick Williams with winning trophy