Bart Cummings came to the opening day of his 64th Melbourne Cup carnival on Saturday hoping for some luck and some history.The luck came when Moatize won the Saab Quality and made sure the great trainer would have two runners when trying to win a 12th Cup on Tuesday.The history arrived at much the same time - even if it wasn't the piece he'd hoped for.With the world weariness that Cummings has developed over his 80 years, the great trainer announced he would do something on Tuesday he has never

Bart Cummings came to the opening day of his 64th Melbourne Cup carnival on Saturday hoping for some luck and some history.

The luck came when Moatize won the Saab Quality and made sure the great trainer would have two runners when trying to win a 12th Cup on Tuesday.

The history arrived at much the same time - even if it wasn't the piece he'd hoped for.

With the world weariness that Cummings has developed over his 80 years, the great trainer announced he would do something on Tuesday he has never done before.

He would put a woman jockey on one of his Cup runners.

"She rides alright, she'll do a good job," Cummings said.

A couple of hours later, as he often is in Melbourne in springtime, he was proved right.

Cummings chose Clare Lindop to ride Moatize in the Cup.

And within a few races she justified the decision by becoming the first woman to ride a Victoria Derby winner when she guided Rebel Raider to a shock victory over the odds-on favourite Whobegotyou.

"I knew she could ride," Cummings said.

The 29-year-old Lindop is one of the top two or three riders in Adelaide.

She won the jockeys' championship there two seasons back, she is the first Australian woman to ride a Group One winner and she became the first woman to ride in the Melbourne Cup when she partnered Debben for trainer Leon Macdonald in 1994.

To become the first woman to ride a Cup winner for Cummings would assure Lindop of a special place in Australian racing.

At the moment though, she is satisfied with merely being in the race on a horse trained by the man who knows more about winning the race than anyone on earth.

"It's unbelievable," she said.

"Bart Cummings wants me to ride one of his horses in the Melbourne Cup.

"I can't think of a greater honour."

Except, perhaps, winning it.

Which would provide Cummings with the bit of history he'd hoped he might have won on Saturday - his 250th Group One winner.