JP McManus and Paul Byrne lead high-stakes betting at Melbourne Cup luncheon in Melbourne on Monday

On Monday in Melbourne, ahead of the 2026 Melbourne Cup, Irish punter JP McManus and owner Paul Byrne were prominent participants in large wagers at the "Call Of The Card" luncheon.

The "Call Of The Card" luncheon, a A$340-a-head event in Melbourne that has been held since 1958, sold out its 1,000 places and staged four leading bookmakers taking on the room by offering each of the 24 runners in turn, beginning with outsiders and finishing with the market leaders.

When George Boughey’s Hopewell Rock was presented to the room at $10 (9-1), Byrne seized the microphone and said: "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$500,000] and get us a million dollars win." The exchange at 2h31m in the event video drew immediate attention from other punters.

One of the four bookmakers agreed to lay A$500,000 at 9-1 and another accepted A$30,000, while the remaining A$470,000 was laid at 17-2 and 8-1. McManus and Byrne also backed Joseph O’Brien’s James J Braddock to the tune of A$150,000 at 20-1, and McManus placed bets on his own runners Trustyourinstinct and Goodie Two Shoes, the latter described in the report as last year’s runner-up.

"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."

Australia enforces a Minimum Bet Limit (MBL) for racing that requires an operator to lay an advertised price to lose a standard minimum amount, currently A$2,000 on a major race such as the Melbourne Cup; there were occasional boos at the luncheon when Robbie Waterhouse offered a price a half-point or point below rivals or accepted only part of a requested stake. Operators have been banned from offering online slot-machine gaming to Australian customers 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.

The Betting and Gaming Council has said tax hikes on gambling will push gamblers towards unregulated, offshore alternatives, and the article states that operators' use of restrictions and account closures against punters perceived as long-term winners has driven racing backers toward the illegal market over the last 20 years.

Warwick 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 Ballymoreen Sedgefield 12.44 Jeteye 1.19 Moment Of Light 1.54 Roxy Russet 2.29 Treaty Boy 3.04 Cadillac Ranch 3.39 Curious Mrs Fox Lingfield 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 Excuse Wolverhampton 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 Desert

From 1 January 2027, when the latest legislation comes into force, Australia will arguably be a world leader in gambling regulation, and "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."