Quick hits: A-listers, mistakes and the King's Melbourne Cup connection

The 2026 Melbourne Cup race day has provided on-course action and off-track celebrities.

With a generous A-lister shouting fans dinner, a heartfelt message from MND sufferer Nathan Charles and the royal connection to race winner Point of Law, there was a little bit of everything at Flemington.

Here's the quick hits from the race that stops a nation.

Some mistakes are more costly than others on Melbourne Cup Day, and it's fair to say that Chris Waller paid dearly for an error made by a member of his team on race day morning.

The New Zealand horse Asterix was found to have had Penetrene administered to both forelegs in its stable just hours before the race.

"Unfortunately, there was a topical treatment applied to the horse this morning which is allowed during the week but not on race day," Racing Victoria chief steward Rob Montgomery told Nine.

"It just is an honest mistake but unfortunately has big consequences."

Penetrene is used to relieve muscle soreness and inflammation and is permitted for use, but not on race days.

Waller was fined $50,000 for the error, but said there was no blame for the incident.

"It's a very basic liniment most stables use and I guess the pressure of race day, the person that looks after the horse, put it on his legs right in front of the security guard," Waller said.

"Nothing was hidden … as soon as it happened we knew there was a problem.

"It's not [the stablehand's] fault, I've got to wear the responsibility, it's my team."

The Melbourne Cup is known for attracting everyone and anyone who wants to be seen in high society and this year is no exception.

Hollywood A-lister Jamie Foxx has been in Melbourne shooting his latest film, Deadlocked.

Between takes though, he has been mixing it with the Melbourne public, including at the evocatively named Maison Bâtard where, according to The Age, he paid for several people's dinner by surprise.

He was at Flemington and told the Daily Mail Australia that he was taking his girlfriend, Alyce Huckstepp, and her family to the races as a surprise.

On a more serious note, former Wallaby Nathan Charles was also at Flemington today.

The 37-year-old has recently been diagnosed with motor neurone disease and, despite the shock of such a devastating diagnosis, is intent on raising the profile of the disease and living his life to the full at the same time.

"In life, everyone has adversity. I've always been a believer in you should be judged not by how you fall over, but instead how you stand back up. And it's a really unfortunate circumstance," he told Nine.

"But it is my journey and I've just got to keep on moving forward.

"I sort of took the week to get my emotions together.

"And then I just thought, you know what, I gotta flip the script.

"Instead of doing things for the last time I want to start doing things for the first time.

"And I want to provide inspiration and hope to young Australians that they can achieve in the face of adversity."

Racegoers were given a real musical treat ahead of the race, with 52-year-old British legend Robbie Williams performing both pre and post-race at Flemington.

Ahead of his latest Australian tour, which starts at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, Williams performed singalong favourites Feel, Rock DJ, Angels and then Let Me Entertain You.

The crowd at Flemington were up on their feet.

And they'll have another opportunity to enjoy the British legend later on too, when he performs another set at the course.

Cup winner Point of Law has had quite the colourful past.

The four-year-old, who was sired by unbeaten British legend Frankel, formerly belonged to King Charles III, who sold the colt earlier this year.

King Charles's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, was a noted horse racing fan, with her gleeful celebration of Estimate's victory in the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup a particular highlight.

She even finished sixth in the 1997 Melbourne Cup with Frankie Dettori on Arabian Story.

One can only guess how she'd have felt about her son selling a horse that would go on to win the race later that same year…

A consortium of Australians bought Point of Law, among them legendary West Coast and Carlton superstar, Chris Judd.

The Melbourne Cup offers something for everyone each year.

Sure, there are plenty of punters who study the form guide intently, listen to all the shows, read all the previous and make an educated selection based on all those factors and more.

And then there's the rest of us, who pick the horse with the name they like best or whose colours remind you of your favourite flag.

For tangential sports fans, there may have been one name that stuck out: James J Braddock.

Film buffs may well recognise this name better than sporties, because James J Braddock was the subject of the 2005 biographical film, Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe.

Braddock was an American boxer in the 1930s who, due to persistent hand injuries, jacked in his ring career to work in the docks during the Great Depression.

He came back to the ring though and, after a couple of impressive victories, managed to land a fight against the heavyweight champion of the world, Max Baer, at Madison Square Garden in 1935.

So monumental was the upset and the way he had come back from near retirement, that the press christened him the Cinderella Man.

Braddock's next fight was against Joe Louis, who knocked him out in the eighth round of their bout in Chigaco in 1937.

As for his equine namesake, he finished a credible seventh in the Cup.