The 2026 Melbourne Cup is not due off until 4am GMT on Tuesday morning – which is 3pm local time on what is still a public holiday in the state of Victoria – but there has already been some spectacular action in the betting market for the “race that stops a nation” over the last few hours, with the Irish punting legend JP McManus, no less, leading the charge.McManus and his fellow owner, Paul Byrne, were among the attendees at the “Call Of The Card” luncheon, a A$340 (£178)-per head event in Melbourne on Monday, which has been a popular feature of the big-race build-up since 1958.The centrepiece of the event sees four leading bookmakers “take on the room”, and give everyone in the 1,000-strong sell-out audience a chance to back each of the 24 runners, starting with the outsiders and concluding with the market leaders.When George Boughey’s Hopewell Rock, the runner-up in the Ebor Handicap at York in August, was offered to the room at $10 – ie. 9-1 – Byrne immediately grabbed the microphone (at 2h31m in the video of the event here). “We’ve travelled a long way now,” Byrne said, “and this is the horse, we’ve been studying the form on the way down we’re thinking we might try and beat last year’s record [bet of A$500k] and get us a million dollars win.”A million to win A$10m is a chunky bet even by Australian standards, and after one of the four bookies agreed to lay A$500k at 9-1 and another accepted A$30k, the remaining A$470 was laid at 17-2 and 8-1.McManus and Byrne also placed bets on several more runners, including Joseph O’Brien’s James J Braddock (A$150k at 20-1), and McManus’s own runners in the race, Trustyourinstinct and Goodie Two Shoes, last year’s runner-up.It is perhaps no great surprise that a lifelong punter (and former bookie) like McManus was in his element as he experienced Monday’s event for the first time. “I certainly enjoyed it.

It’s exciting, I must say,” he told the Racing Post afterwards. “It’s something different and I think we can learn from it. I don’t know if anything like this will ever happen in Britain and Ireland, but it certainly adds to the occasion and it creates a lot of excitement.

I only wish they would do it elsewhere.”For a punter and racing fan following the event on the other side of the world, meanwhile, it was a fascinating glimpse into a very different betting culture, not least on the bookies’ side of the equation.There are many thousands of racing fans in the UK and Ireland who will greet the sight of a bookie laying a sizeable bet with a hollow laugh. For years, backers – or rather, would-be backers – have seen their accounts closed or restricted to betting in pennies if there is any hint that they might turn a long-term profit from their betting.Australia, though, has an official Minimum Bet Limits (MBL) for racing, which requires an operator to lay an advertised price to lose a standard minimum amount, currently A$2k on a major race like the Melbourne Cup.That is, clearly, well below the level at which McManus and Byrne – and many of the other punters at “Call Of The Card” – are playing, but establishes the principle that when a bookie advertises a price, the backers deserve a fair crack before it is cut.

There were occasional boos, in fact, at Monday’s event in Melbourne when Robbie Waterhouse, perhaps the most familiar name in Australian bookmaking, offered a price that was a half-point or point below his rivals, or accepted only part of a requested stake.JP McManus and champion trainer Gai Waterhouse at the ‘Call of the Card’ event ahead of the Melbourne Cup. Photograph: Vince Caligiuri/Getty ImagesThe MBL is not the only aspect of Australian gambling and betting culture and legislation that differs markedly from that in Britain.

Operators have been banned from offering online slot-machine gaming to Australian customers, for instance, since 2001, and subsequent legislation passed by the Australian parliament in August will make it much more difficult for Australians to access illegal offshore casinos.We have, of course, heard a great deal about the illegal market in this country in recent years, as the Betting and Gaming Council, the main industry body, has often claimed that tax hikes on gambling will inevitably push gamblers towards unregulated, offshore alternatives.Yet nothing has done more to push racing punters towards the illegal market over the last 20 years than the operators’ own use of restrictions and account closures against punters who are – or simply threaten to be – long-term winners.Quick GuideGreg Wood's Tuesday tipsShowWarwick 12.18 Un Sens A La Vie 12.53 Kelly Burn 1.28 Trigg 2.03 Lucy The Wire 2.38 Court In A Storm 3.13 I Love You Sivola 3.48 BallymoreenSedgefield 12.44 Jeteye 1.19 Moment Of Light 1.54 Roxy Russet 2.29 Treaty Boy 3.04 Cadillac Ranch 3.39 Curious Mrs FoxLingfield 1.02 Burk Flight 1.37 Analogical 2.12 Chosen Hero 2.47 Away For The Night 3.22 Calshot Spit 3.57 A Great ExcuseWolverhampton 4.30 Mini Mac (nb) 5.00 Sonbelievable 5.30 Crown Of Ivy 6.00 Red Blue Point 6.30 Fancy Dancer 7.00 Politely 7.30 Lipsink (nap) 8.00 Tiger Beetle 8.30 Man Of DesertFrom 1 January 2027, when the latest legislation comes into force, Australia will arguably be a world leader in gambling regulation, and an essential part of that is the fact that the country’s lawmakers see and understand the distinction between the most harmful forms of gambling – casino-gaming and slots – and betting on sport. They are also taking meaningful steps to protect their citizens from the dangers of the unregulated market, while ensuring that bookies will lay an advertised price to a reasonable sum.There will, surely, be many lessons there for our own government to absorb, if or when a successor to the outdated Gambling Act 2005 finally appears on the horizon.