Melbourne is staring at potentially “dangerous” Cup Day conditions and there are fears the city could be in for a stormy afternoon.
7NEWS weather guru Jane Bunn says “most of Cup Day is actually looking great” and it will be warm and humid with “lots of sunshine”.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Jane Bunn’s weather warning for the Melbourne Cup.
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But that will change in the afternoon with the risk of a thunderstorm threatening to spoil the big race.
“That mix of warmth and local storms, along with the extreme pollen forecast, brings the potential for thunderstorm asthma,” Bunn warned.
“The department of health has issued a moderate warning for the central and eastern parts of Victoria tomorrow.
Melbourne’s fickle weather could put a big dampener on the big race. Credit: Getty Images
“And, as these dangerous conditions aren’t expected to ease until Thursday, Victorians are being advised to have an asthma plan in place.”
Bunn stressed that not everyone would see the storms and they were “hit and miss”.
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“Most of Melbourne should remain quite sunny,” Bunn said.
The Bureau of Meteorology is also predicting a high of 30 but says there is a “high chance” of showers and “possibly severe” thunderstorms in the afternoon and early evening.
“Winds northeasterly 15 to 20 km/h turning northerly 25 to 35 km/h during the morning then decreasing to 15 to 25 km/h in the early afternoon,” BOM said.
Last year’s Melbourne Cup was also marred by rain and it was chilly, too, with the temperature struggling to reach the mid-teens.
The threat of unpredictable weather hasn’t deterred punters, however, with some big money rolling in at Monday’s annual Call Of The Card in Melbourne..
Cup favourite Vauban’s stablemate, Absurde, was generally out of the conversation in local racing circles as a genuine winning chance for Australia’s most famous race.
However, since the barrier draw on Saturday night, the ‘second-stringer’ has been the hot horse on punters’ minds and that continued at
In some markets as much as $31 could be snapped up on Saturday and after drawing barrier eight for the Group 1 3200-metre feature, that price came into $26.
While Vauban’s appearance at Flemington last Tuesday set social media alight, Absurde garnered far less attention – until now.
On Monday afternoon, Irish trainer Willie Mullins’s ‘other’ chance had tumbled into $10.
Absurde was backed to win $2 million, and that included a whopping bet of $20,000 each-way at $12.
But punters were still keen on Vauban which was backed to win more than $3 million.
Vauban heads the Cup market at $4.60 with Without A Fight at $6.50 and Gold Trip at $7.
Absurde now occupies the fourth line of betting with the Chris Waller-trained Soulcombe.
In other interesting bets, high-profile bookmaker Tom Waterhouse (the son of legendary trainer Gai) backed French mare Lastotchka for a win of $200,000.
Another punter also plonked $10,000 on Lastotchka at $26, driving in the mare’s odds (the only mare in the race) from $26 to $21.
– With RAS Newswire
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