Punters looking for the winner of the Tooheys New Melbourne Cup in recent years have had to scour the bottom of the handicap, but Sky Heights can buck the trend to keep the near-£1m prize at home yet again tomorrow.

Colin Alderson' charge is set to lump 56.5 kilos around the Flemington circuit - a feat not achieved since the victory of the former Geoff Wragg-trained Jeune in 1994.

Sky Heights finished a well-beaten 17th in the race won by Rogan Josh in 1998 and has often disappointed since.

However, this year it has been different. After being nursed and cajoled by Alderson's daughter Cindy, Sky Heights has begun to come into his own over the last three months.

Never more so than in the latest running of the Caulfield showpiece which took place just two weeks ago.

Having had his nose in front a stride before and a stride after the line, he was pipped by Ethereal by a nose in the mile and a half event.