Champion Irish jumps trainer Willie Mullins predicts former hurdler Max Dynamite will be the first European horse over the line in the Melbourne Cup.

Max Dynamite's owner Rich Ricci certainly believes Mullins is a magician who can turn a horse bought for jumping into a Melbourne Cup winner.

After all, another Irish trainer has already managed to do just that - Dermot Weld and the first European-trained runner, Vintage Crop.

Mullins is happy with the way six-year-old Max Dynamite has settled in and trained in Melbourne ahead of Tuesday's race.

"This guy has got plenty of pace as he showed us in the Lonsdale Cup. Hopefully we can emulate what Vintage Crop did," Mullins said on Cup eve.

Max Dynamite is the third horse Mullins has brought out from Ireland as he pursues his dream of winning the Cup, after 17th-placed Holy Orders in 2003 and Simenon who finished fourth a decade later.

"We've been lucky enough to have three so far and hopefully it's third time lucky for us," Mullins said.

Mullins is not worried that Max Dynamite has not had a lead-in race in Australia before Tuesday's Cup, saying that is the normal way horses are trained in Europe.

"His flat form mixes in with the best of the Europeans so I don't see why he couldn't be the first European horse home. If that's good enough to win that'll do me."

Max Dynamite's jumping technique wasn't brilliant, Mullins said, so he went to the flat and has been targeted at the Melbourne Cup since his Group Two Lonsdale Cup win at York in August.

Mullins is in the business of training stayers for stamina, whether it be in jumps or on the flat, which he says suits a race like the Melbourne Cup.

"The type of the horse that Australians come to Europe to buy is exactly the same horses we're buying.

"We always keep one eye on that. If they're not good enough over jumps we come back to the flat and have a go at the Melbourne Cup."

London-based Ricci, who has 60 jumps horses with Mullins, believes the best is yet to come from Max Dynamite.

"I don't think we've seen how good he is. Willie's a magician."

The former banker is a big investor in jumps racing in Ireland and one of the most successful owners, but had not imagined himself as the owner of a Melbourne Cup horse.

"I'm probably a philistine in most of Australian society I imagine, having the audacity to run a jumps horse here."