Your Melbourne Cup Form Guide

It's come a long way since Jean Shrimpton-The Shrimp- shocked and outraged and positively delighted the crowds at Flemington in Melbourne in 1965 and established once and for all time, The Mini Skirt was here to stay ( it looks so tame today).

Today as a few hundred thousand racegoers descend upon Flemington racecourse for the Melbourne Cup we've provided a handy form guide for the fillies and their jockeys to look out for in the Birdcage, Member's Stand and the private marquees (hover around the Emirates for the real action)

Starting with the richest :
Billionaire James Packer and wife Erica (be nice to them and they may invite you back to James' private bar at the Crown Casino for their karaoke night) and Richard Branson.
Celeb receiving the most for showing up (about 200 grand) Sarah Jessica Parker.

Lovebirds Shane Warne and Elizabeth Hurley. Burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, Kim Kardashian  Rebecca Judd and the real star of the day who should not missed (easy to do as she's so tiny) Joan Collins. And there is bound to be a few surprises like Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire

Mumm champagne, Moet & Chandon, Bollinger will all be hosting marquees and in "Millionaire's Row", the Emirates marquee is styled on St Petersburg's Catherine Palace with the Zhivago restaurant and powder room for ladies, and a Jo Malone perfume stylist demonstrating how to "accessorise" with 23 fragrances.

 Myer's have their "Butterfly House" with Jennifer Hawkins complete with  fluttering laser-cut butterflies, as the PR sheet wittily says..'to show off the social butterflies". 

Garden guru Jamie Durie has flown back from the USA where he hosts a cable TV show to create a "vertical garden installation" in a three-level marquee and VIPs will  be chauffeured to and from the track in luxury Lexus vehicles.

Irreverent / Irrelevant Facts : The first Melbourne Cup in 1861 was filmed and this was the very first  movie to be screened commercially.

The first prize in 1861 for owners of the winning horse-a nice watch while today's prize purse will be $3.5M. The Shuttle's favourite horse name of all time : Whykickamoocow.

Oprah Winfrey Does The Crocodile Rock

As the Social Shuttle exclusively reported on the 10th October, Oprah Winfrey in the Greatest Journey Ever Taken will be holidaying on Hamilton Island and has booked the penthouse for 2 days.

  Oprah treats her entire staff from the show to an annual all expenses paid vacation but doesn't always join them, or if she does, often stays in a different hotel. Hamilton also has it's own zoo with lot's of local animals which Oprah is sure to visit.

Now news has reached us of another adventure for the 300 lucky Americans who will be flown to Sydney courtesy of a (fully functioning ) Qantas jet with Hollywood star John Travolta at the joystick.

Step forward little Bindi Irwin and her Australia Zoo.  Bindi has won the hearts of  American TV viewers and looks like being an even bigger star than her dad, the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. She regularly hosts shows at the zoo along with her little brother Bob who was once dangled as baby by his dad over a pit of snapping crocodiles.

Some of the American troupe will be visiting and filming at the Zoo in Beerwaq Queensland and Bindi will be interviewed by Oprah on her Opera House show along with possibly her  mother and little brother,

One of Oprah's former favourites who will not be featured is the gardening guru Jamie Durie. While Durie who appeared on many Oprah shows and Winfrey remain friends-the Shuttle was at a James Durie furniture launch when the great woman phoned through to congratulate him-he hosts a US version of his Outdoor Room on the HGTV cable station, a direct competitor to Oprah's new OWN network that begins in 2011.

Oprah's Aussie Secrets-we have them

One of the benefits of attending the old fashioned Black & White Ball is the contacts one runs into. It's the last of the old style Eastern Suburbs dances and the madcap Debutante's Derby is a sight to see.

Ball-gowned young beauties reel in wooden horses in a paean to the Royal Randwick Races. A heart stopping starter's gun is fired and pandemonium breaks loose as the barracking from the well-heeled spectators fills the room egging on their young daughters to gallop the wooden charges into first place.

The other major excitement for the night was asking the Hon Bronwyn Bishop MP-guest of honour-what she thought about now being the oldest MP in the Federal parliament. She fixed us with her steely gaze and replied-"there are MPs older than me you know". Her prediction for the future-Kevin Rudd will resign from Parliament within a year.

Next year all that may change. As one racing identity told us tonight-the snooty Australian Jockey's Club (AJC) that runs Randwick has voted to merge with the Sydney Turf Club that oversees racing tracks in outer Sydney such as Rosehill near Parramatta. AJC members are mortified.

The last time the Shuttle attended the races at Rosehill we were cadged into assisting as spotters in a local version of 'Fashions In The Field' . When our choice of young filly alighted the competitor's stage in a white wedding dress (with beefy tattooed arms), the announcer enquired as to what the large ornamental object was that she was holding high like a trophy.

His words-broadcast to thousands as necks craned to see, faded away to a hoarse croak as it dawned upon him that he just drawn the inquisitive crowd's attention to a giant purple dildo. Alas-she didn't win a prize and we haven't been asked back.

We digress. The ball was held at the Four Season's Hotel at Circular Quay and we button-holed someone that matters. In December a large block booking has been made for 180 rooms plus the penthouse . A range of alterations to the penthouse have been requested from a crew of 8 advance crew from a certain TV show broadcast out of Chicago. At the nearby Holiday Inn, a further 144 rooms have been booked.

However the plot thickens. At the very same time 6 of the very very best rooms and the major suite at the Park Hyatt Hotel, directly opposite the Opera House has been booked by the same US crew.

Our source however says that Oprah herself will most likely be at the Hotel Intercontinental due to it's close location to the Opera House.

And there are more hotel bookings. At the luxurious Hamilton Island, a luxury suite that comes with butler service and overlooks the Coral Sea, has been secured for 2 nights. So now you know. And more soon on who will be Oprah Winfrey's guests and who won't. Gardening guru Jamie Durie is in the second lot and we'll tell you why.

Jamie gets mad

One of the most visibly upset mourners at Johnny Baker's funeral on Friday was his close friend Skye Leckie, tireless charity worker and all round nice girl. Not only had Skye lost a great pal, she had personally organized all the funeral proceedings.

Now husband and Channel 7 supremo David Leckie has a major headache-how to sooth the troubled brows of his network's major talent, the diminutive but perfectly formed ex-Manpower dancer turned gardening guru, Jame Durie.

Durie is furious that gossip mag New Idea (referred to as No Idea by some publishing wags) printed a tale that he had been 'dumped' by Oprah Winfrey after winning hearts and minds when Jamie first appeared on Oprah's show 2 years ago to give gardening hints and went on to become a regular guest.

"Not true" said an upset Durie and an Oprah spokesman backed him up when the Shuttle managed to get through by Skype-saying that despite Jamie filming a series of his Outdoor Room for US cable TV, he and Oprah still maintain a warm relationship. It's high priced lawyers at ten paces which puts Leckie in a difficult position-one of his top money spinners is suing a publication owned by Pacific Publications which in turn is owned by Leckie's boss, Channel 7 owner and billionaire Kerry Stokes.

New Idea only recently apologised to tennis ace Leyton Hewitt and wife Bec over a mistaken tale that linked Bec with a mysterious man who turned out to be her minder. Bec is still considering whether she will take the matter further.

Where this dispute will end no-one knows, but it's just 4 weeks since the Shuttle attended the launch of Durie's new range of garden furniture in his Patio range at the re-vamped Beresford Hotel just off Oxford Street's gay strip in Darlinghurst and while sharing a champers with owner Ashog and Durie, a call came through from the Great One herself. Yes. Oprah had negotiated time zones to place a congratulating personal call to Jamie.

                                       lawyers at 10 paces..OK..they're really Jamie Durie's garden gnomes