Gai Waterhouse was an absentee from the annual Melbourne Cup eve parade but is expected to be front and centre when the race is run.

Fiorente is the favourite to give the ebullient Waterhouse her first Melbourne Cup win with punters flocking to back the former English horse on Monday.

In a career spanning just over two decades, Waterhouse has trained the runner-up three times, including last year when Fiorente finished second to Green Moon, one of six runners for leviathan owner Lloyd Williams.

Waterhouse has some political heavyweights on her side with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and billionaire Clive Palmer both tipping Fiorente.

The Cup is expected to be run on a firm Flemington track with the 24-horse field featuring nine overseas-trained runners, several more imported horses now with Australian trainers and just five home-grown entrants.

French jockey Christophe Lemaire, who won the 2011 Cup on Dunaden, soaked up the atmosphere of the parade which he missed three years ago as a last minute replacement for the suspended Craig Williams.

Lemaire is back to ride another French horse Verema for the Aga Khan.

"I have great memories (of 2011) but everything went very fast because I arrived just the day before the race and I left the day after so I couldn't enjoy the real excitement of the race, especially with the crowd and Melbourne city," Lemaire said.

"So I'm glad to be here today and to be part of this big event.

"For the European guys, we are not used to live this kind of event for horse racing. So today we are like stars, or movie stars, or big sportsmen. For us it's quite different than in Europe."