Racing people know more about tragedy than almost any other emotion.

But knowing about it doesn't make it any easier.

As the winners rejoiced after Tuesday's Melbourne Cup, the little group who had come from France with the mare Verema wept uncontrollably for their horse who broke down before reaching the half-way mark and was dead before the winner weighed in.

Jonathon Fleurtot who travelled with Verema, washed her face every morning and brushed her mane and tail before she slept, couldn't speak.

When he learned Verema had been put down, Fleurtot stood stunned and was led to the weighing room where he was joined by Nemone Routhe, the racing manager for Verema's owner, the Aga Khan.

Together they cried their hearts out.

The mare's trainer Alain de Royer Dupre, who has trained a thousand horses, many of them for the Aga Khan, went to his mare's side as she stood on the track near the 2000m with her broken front leg dangling.

The veteran horseman carried her bridle back to the stables and left it there.

The only words spoken for the mare came from her jockey Christophe Lemaire who had ridden Dunaden to win the Melbourne Cup two years ago.

"When you live with these horses you become very close to them. You love them," Lemaire said.

"When you take care of horses like this it's normal to cry.

"You come here and dream of winning the race, not of stopping half way around."

Verema broke the canon bone of her off side front leg, an injury from which there is no recovery.

Verema's death made the other emotion racing people know about less relevant.

As Gai Waterhouse accepted the congratulations for her first Cup win, she asked about Verema.

"How's the boy who looked after her?" she said.

"It's always awful for them."