John Wheeler might still be recovering from Veandercross' near miss in the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double of 1992, but his old-school methods haven't waned as he stands on the brink of squeezing into this year's race. The Kiwi horseman will run Pentathlon in the Melbourne Cup's last chance saloon, the Lexus Stakes, on Saturday, despite being all but assured of a run in the $6.2 million main course on Tuesday. Pentathlon has been lifted to No.24 on the order of entry – which is likely to be enough to get into the field given Tally is a doubtful starter – but Wheeler is planning for the Melbourne Cup to be his stayer's third run in 11 days. "I was in two minds to be honest and I could have pulled him out [of the Lexus Stakes] now, but the rider [Mark Du Plessis] will get a feel of him and he will see the track and hopefully we won't have to give him a real hard one," Wheeler said. "He's backed up at the New Zealand Cup meeting before."

Hayes sees stars in Cantala contenders

Seaburge and He's Our Rokkii? Or Criterion and Better Loosen Up? David Hayes can't work out the difference between his Cantala Stakes hopefuls. "He [Seaburge] is working like Criterion," Hayes said before the $1 million group 1 1600-metre race on Saturday. "The stablemate [He's Our Rokkii] is in pretty good form and has won six of his last seven. He's a real tough hard nut and I think he has Better Loosen Up qualities as he just knows how to win." Hayes won the old Emirates Stakes with All American in 2009 beating So You Think, which was the last three-year-old to run in the race. Hayes helped launch a new Australian-first initiative on Thursday aimed at making it easier for owners to enter the racing industry. The Stable Mates program, which is part of the wider Racing Connections brand launched by Aushorse, has the backing of leading trainers Hayes, Gai Waterhouse, Mick Price, Darren Weir and Tony Gollan. "It's so important that racing keeps reaching out and attracting new people," Waterhouse said.

Revolution has it over Capitalist

Capitalist not even the best chance in the stable of winning the Coolmore Stakes? It would have been inconceivable six months ago. But Kerrin McEvoy has no qualms about labelling his mount, the unbeaten Russian Revolution who hadn't even raced when Capitalist won the Golden Slipper, as Peter and Paul Snowden's top pick in the stallion-making sprint. "He's been winning," McEvoy said. "Until the other horse can bounce back to winning form [it's hard to get a gauge on him], but this horse is improving and heading in the right direction all the time. He's gone to a new level – in his last run definitely – and he's travelled down to Melbourne really well. I'm pretty pleased with the way he went down the straight the other morning in a jumpout."

Racing popularity on wane

Australians are expected to punt almost $140 million on Tuesday's Melbourne Cup, but a leading analyst has warned bookmakers face declining interest in horse racing in the coming years. "Interest in horse racing [is] waning and demand rising for other gambling services," said IBISWorld senior industry analyst Tommy Wu. "Horse racing attendances are projected to decline at an annualised 0.8 per cent over five years through to 2015-16, to 1.8 million people. Attendance at Melbourne Cup has declined from a peak of 122,736 in 2003 to 101,015 in 2015."

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