Melbourne Cup Betting Preview: Hartnell, Oceanographer, Jameka Odds, Analysis

International horse racing powerhouse Godolphin have coveted the Melbourne Cup for more than 20 years and have their best chance ever to win the world's richest handicap with the two favorites in Tuesday's race carrying the famous blue colours of the Maktoum family.

Three times, Godolphin horses have run second in Australia's greatest race (Central Park in 1999, Give The Slip in 2001 and Crime Scene in 2009), but they have never boasted five contenders for the Melbourne Cup in the same year.

Those five contenders are trained by three different men from different corners of the world. Hartnell, who according to website AustralianGambling is a $5 betting favorite, is trained in Australia by John O'Shea, while $7 second pick Oceanographer is prepared out of Charlie Appleby's Newmarket stables in England, as is $21 shot Qewy.

Saeed Bin Suroor, the Dubai-born and Newmarket-based trainer who has been the man behind those three heartbreaking defeats in this race, trains the two Godolphin outsiders Secret Number ($34) and Beautiful Romance ($67).

Challenging Godolphin for numbers is leviathan owner Lloyd Williams, a four-time winner of this race, who has four horses trained by two different men on opposite ends of the world.

Aidan O'Brien is probably the most recognizable face in world racing, and the champion Irish trainer prepares Bondi Beach, the $9 fourth favorite, for Williams. O'Brien has never won this race and was chastened by his Flemington experience back in 2008 when he fronted stewards to explain how all three of his runners in the race had failed.

There are few major races in the world that either Godolphin or the Ballydoyle operation of O'Brien has not won. This in one of them.

From the recognizable face of O'Brien, Williams' other three runners—Almandin ($17), Assign ($67) and Gallante ($67)—are prepared by Australian racing's Mr Anonymous, Robert Hickmott.

Hickmott is Williams' private trainer in Australia; the owner is the mastermind behind the operation, while his son Nick is the chief spokesman. Hickmott is left to do what he does best: prepare the horses.

Ciaron Maher, the mop-haired trainer from Koroit in country Victoria, is plotting an upset of racing's royalty. He has his Caulfield Cup-winning mare Jameka, the third favorite at $8, ready to become the first horse to win Australia's two biggest handicaps in the same year since Ethereal did the double in 2001.

It is a year when international horses dominate, as bookmakers give good chances to Michael Bell's Big Orange ($17), Willie Mullins' Wicklow Brave ($17) and Tony Martin's Heartbreak City ($15).

In terms of local trainers, Lee Freedman, who is looking for his sixth Melbourne Cup as a trainer and his first since he returned to training from a sabbatical, has import Exospheric ($20) coming into the race off an excellent third in the Caulfield Cup. Meanwhile, David Hayes is looking to break a 22-year drought for his family as he teams with son Ben and nephew Tom Dabernig in preparing Almoonqith ($21) after he finished fourth in that same race.

Chris Waller, the dominant force in Australia training for the past three years, has $34 shot Who Shot Thebarman and $31 shot Grand Marshal, who quinellaed the Moonee Valley Cup at their most recent start.