IT’S the battle of racing immortals punters could only have ever dreamed of seeing – until now.
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But thanks to technological wizardry (with a dash of Game Boy nostalgia) you can now stage your very own virtual Melbourne Cup dash to discover how its 150 former winners would fare against each other.
And the results are spectacular.
In an online matchup between the race record holder, Kingston Rule, and the legendary three-time winner, Makybe Diva, the latter looks positively sluggish.
When the horse that won the first Melbourne Cup in 1861, Archer, is pitted against the most recent, Dunaden, the 2011 victor wins by a country mile - 24.8 seconds.
However, there are some far closer contests, with a race against 2009 winner Shocking and 2007 champion Efficient proving to be one of a number of hypothetical nail-bitters.
Fairfax Regional Digital Media designed the Melbourne Cup Race-off to bring a unique cup experience direct to your desktop, laptop or phone.
It was the brainchild of multimedia editor Nick Evershed.