Trainer David Hayes maintains the VRC should leave a number of positions in the Melbourne Cup specifically for Australian-trained horses as the international visitors prepare to a make a clean sweep of our three spring majors.
Hayes said the internationalisation of the Melbourne Cup had brought tremendous benefits for the Australian racing industry, but believes a cap should be placed on European and Asian stayers in our most important race.
"It's worked very successfully in Hong Kong where they allow positions to be left for locally trained horses and the rest of the race is made up of horses coming in from all parts of the world," the leading Victorian trainer said.
"And this could also be implemented here for the Melbourne Cup. I'm not talking silly figures, what I'm saying is that people like [Racing Victoria handicapper] Greg Carpenter and the club could work out the balance so it's just right between internationals and locals.
"And what I mean by locals is that those stables that have gone around the world, purchased horses and brought them home to Australian stables should rightfully be deemed locals."
This year's Melbourne Cup is set to host a record 11 international runners among the 24-horse strong.
Hayes said people should not be "carried away" by the success the international visitors were enjoying this spring.
"It's a cyclical thing. This year they've won the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate and look pretty much poised to win the Melbourne Cup, but that's not going to happen every year.
"Last year the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate, and Melbourne Cup all went to Australian-trained horses, so we haven't got to think that far back to when Australia had a clean sweep of its major races."
Hayes believes the VRC could consider a list of horses wanting to come to Australia for the Melbourne Cup and to categorise them until it has reached its limit of overseas horses.
"There will be a happy medium between ours and visitors, so it's definitely well worth thinking about for cups of the future."
Australian owners in the past five years have been regular visitors to Ireland and France in a bid to buy a stayer worthy of competing in the Caulfield and Melbourne cups.
One of the main local hopes this year, Fawkner, has come through his Cox Plate second well and will bid to give owner Lloyd Williams a fifth success in the Cup.
The only more successful player in Melbourne Cup history, trainer Bart Cummings, will be working hard to ensure his outside hope Precedence is at Flemington.
Precedence is aiming to compete in his fourth Melbourne Cup, but those plans are problematic after the nine-year-old stayer was galloped on during the Moonee Valley Cup.
Co-trainer James Cummings said on Sunday vets were confident the veteran stayer would be fit to take his place in the Cup.
"It was unfortunate, he was going to be right in the finish until Albonetti galloped on his hind legs near the home turn and in doing so ended his chances of success," James Cummings said.
"While the vets have been working hard on his legs they are confident we can make the Melbourne Cup for the fourth time."
No nine-year-old has won the Melbourne Cup. Precedence will be joined by another nine-year-old in the Cup, the globetrotting Red Cadeaux, who has twice been runner-up in the Cup.
Precedence was the last horse balloted out of last year's Cup field.
