Gai Waterhouse and David Hayes talked constantly on their mobile phones and Lee Freedman laughed loudly at his own jokes.

As the training trio delayed the show, riding greats Roy Higgins and Harry White - the winners between them of six of Bart Cummings' 12 Melbourne Cups - showed the same patience they displayed in the saddle.

Along with a couple of dozen other racing figures and luminaries including Lady Susan Renouf, they gathered at Flemington on Monday to pose for their part in a major photographic montage that will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Racing Club.

For White, who sat holding his four Melbourne Cup trophies, it was the first time in more than a decade he'd been to the track he once "owned".

"I don't get out as much as I should," White said.

"It's a very long time since I've seen some of these blokes, I should do it more often."

White, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10 years ago, recalled what he said was the most satisfying of his four Cups - the 1979 edition on board Hyperno.

"He was a horse a lot of people didn't like, but I did," White said.

"We got on very well and he performed for me."

Also a part of Monday's shoot were former VRC chairmen Hilton Nicholas and Rod Fitzroy, Black Caviar's breeder Rick Jamieson and fashion designer Prue Acton.

The montage will be completed during a world tour that will capture more images, including those of Irish trainer Dermot Weld, French horsemen Alain de Royer Dupre and Mikel Delzangles, Japanese trainer Katsuhiko Sumii and jockey Yasunari Iwata, and Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum of Dubai.