Among the record-equalling 11 Internationals competing in Australia's most popular race French, English and even Scots dialects were detected.

"I have nothing against foreign individual trainers and their connections but the racing club should not be setting so many places for them," Cummings commented.

Of course it is not the first time I have conversed with those who are no longer on ground level. Due to the lack of suitable subjects a tree was also interviewed.

But walking last week past the Cummings structure in the public section at Flemington the urge arose to put questions to The Master about the race upon which he made such an impact.

Perhaps the likeness at Flemington isn't reflective of how he was on the mornings preceding the Melbourne Cup nor his later years lighting incendiaries at Randwick track work to get trainers such as John O'Shea on the boil, but the need to hear some wisdom from him was still overwhelming.

The mention of the Irish dominance last Tuesday took him back to Viewed in 2008, the last of his dozen Melbourne Cup triumphs.

"For the tactics employed in the 2008 Melbourne Cup were the most the extraordinary in memory," he recalled.

"The Irish trainer Aiden O'Brien had three starters, the second favourite Septimus, Honolulu, and Alessandro Volta all flown in from Europe and given the red carpet treatment by the VRC.

"My concerns about the VRC's willingness to make things easy for the Europeans had come to a head. In 2008 something like half the field were northern hemisphere horses. It's all very well to introduce a foreign flavour but this was getting out of hand.

"For every one of them that raced an Australian horse was missing out. And for every Australian horse missing out that was a potential lost opportunity for our breed to develop the stamina it sorely needs.

"The running of the race was farcical at the front of the field at least ... Aiden O'Brien's jockeys took off like it was a Newmarket ... Apart from bad tactics the riding was dangerous for the rest of the field."

And what about Lloyd Williams with six winners, the most successful owner topping your patron Dato Chin Nam?

"For me the name Lloyd Williams evoked different memories," the Master explained. "I was at Flemington one morning at the clock tower and someone was talking about this big wheel Lloyd Williams and I said 'that's the boy who was Ray Borg's chauffeur. The fellow I was talking to said this couldn't be true. Lloyd Williams was a big businessman; he was the Crown Casino man. He couldn't have been a chauffeur'.

"But a few weeks later the fellow ran into Williams and said: 'Bart Cummings said you used to be Ray Borg's chauffeur. That can't be true'.

"Apparently Williams replied: 'Bart's got a good memory'.

"Borg was the head of a big Melbourne department store Bon Marche. He started as a window cleaner. He had interests in several racehorses. Once he introduced me to the chauffeur who was a young kid with the face of an altar boy. His name was Lloyd. I assume that proximity to Ray was Lloyd's real education in business."

Animal welfare people at present are on the boil with jockeys punching horses?

"Once I saw one of my strappers growling at a horse and I said: 'you keep growling and you'll be growling out the gate'. If a fellow is going to kick the khyber out of a horse because it treads on his toes you end up with a horse shrivelling in a corner. You could walk in on ours when they were lying down in the boxes and they wouldn't get up because they knew you weren't going to hurt them."

Have you seen any of my mates up there?

"No they must have missed the cut," Cummings reflected and moved to a subject more appealing.

"Remember I loved to see horses in their work. When you see a good one like Light Fingers with rapid rhythm, low grass cutting stride, her head back, and tail in one perfect line you have a vision of heaven."