
The Hunter will have its greatest representation in a Melbourne Cup in recent memory - and potentially ever - when six runners with ties to the region contest the $8.4 million race on Tuesday at Flemington.
Top Newcastle trainer Kris Lees will have two runners - Cleveland and Kalapour - in the race that stops a nation for the first time, while his gun apprentice jockey, 22-year-old Dylan Gibbons, will have his maiden Cup ride aboard Okita Soushi for leading Irish conditioner Joseph O'Brien.