These words proved to be true for his big rival on the day, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. 

Despite devoting the best part of two decades, and more than a billion dollars, to winning the Melbourne Cup, Sheikh Mohammed fell short yet again.

Crown Casino founder Williams was a relative underdog with only four horses in the race.

The sheikh, who spent roughly $500 million in 2008 alone acquiring Australia's biggest racing empire from the Ingham family, had an unprecedented five runners in Tuesday's race including the favourite, Hartnell.

But it is Lloyd who now has his fifth Melbourne Cup win.

And the good news is he won't be alone celebrating Almandin's win. His rag tag collection of battlers includes music industry legend Michael Gudinski, Rip Curl founder Brian Singer, and Quiksilver founder Alan Green.

The win almost overshadowed some of the action off the track, like Gina Rinehart bringing the Birdcage to a standstill with her entourage of swimmers – and PR supremo Sophie Mirabella – to lunch with fellow billionaire Anthony Pratt.

And the good news is that lunch was put on by the airline set up by our Sheikh Mohammed – Melbourne Cup sponsor, Emirates Airlines – so there was no squabbling between the billionaires over how they would split the bill.

But it makes you wonder why they were at the Emirates Marquee at all, neither of them would actually lower themselves to fly commercial, would they?

Not like Perth Glory owner, Tony Sage, who was there – as always.

So was the professional help like Qantas boss Alan Joyce, along with his crew, which includes marketing supremo Olivia Wirth and hubby Paul Howes. So was Flight Centre boss Graham Turner, and our favourite postie, Ahmed Fahour.

Fahour posted a selfie from the Myer tent but shied away from the shoe shine operation outside the marquee this year, which is a great shame because he only took home $4.8 million last year and probably needs all the free shoe shines he can get on that sort of pay.

Our Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has become such a fixture at the Emirates tent that it is barely worth mentioning – but what we don't know is whether she made her way to the most  exclusive marquee at this year's Melbourne Cup.

Tucked away at the opposite end of the track from the media-saturated Birdcage, with its footballers, B-listers and billionaires is the Crown Resorts marquee.

According to gossip, James Packer's casino operator  choppers its high rollers to the track to watch the big race.

Given the fuss Crown is facing in China, which has detained 18 of its staff for alleged "gambling crimes", Ms Bishop could have just popped over for a quick update on what is happening and claimed it as a work day.

The saddest sight of the day was Elmer Funke Kupper missing from his usual spot in the Tabcorp tent. He is standing down while the Feds continue their investigation into alleged dealings by Tabcorp in Cambodia during Kupper's tenure. He has denied any wrongdoing, and his career is in limbo until the matter is cleared up.

Meanwhile Tabcorp boss, David Attenborough was doing a great job of convincing CBD that there was no need for any fuss over where exactly the headquarters would be for the merged Tabcorp/Tatts empire – assuming it gets approved by competition czar Rod Sims.

"I live in Sydney, head office is in Melbourne and I fly between the two every week," he said of the current arrangements at Tabcorp.

He said the merger would just add Brisbane to his weekly flight schedule – and we wish him luck with selling that one to the Queenslanders.

Myer's Richard Umbers was a happy man – and not just because he had to spend a large part of the day with an employee by the name of Jennifer Hawkins.

Umbers was a winner in the fashion stakes after a late surge in hat sales last week had them selling at a rate of one hat a minute at the department store chain.

The fine forecast for Derby Day was partly to thank for the millinery mayhem, which shows why the spring carnival really is Myer's Christmas.

It sells 23 per cent of all its women's dresses in the six-week lead-up to the carnival and it moves 64,000 suits.

Quant theory 

It was not a great cup for the quant team at Macquarie Group, which unveiled its picks on the morning of the big race.

"For punters who are out for gold and glory, we use the unbiased odds calculated by our Halpha model to pick horses with the highest likelihood of winning. Our top three are Hartnell (9.6 per cent), Jameka (8.9 per cent) and Big Orange (6.6 per cent)," said the five Macquarie analysts, who sport two PhDs between them.

"However, for value investors out for a bargain, the most undervalued horses are Assign, Curren Mirotic and Almoonqith. We think these horses are more likely to win than their odds suggest."

Better luck next year guys.

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au