Melbourne Cup LIVE: Premiership Pies get an early win as Cup trainer slugged with massive fine, scratching; main race at 3pm

Courtney Thompson, deputy lifestyle editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reporting to you live from the Birdcage at Flemington.

I’ll be leading the fashion coverage for Cup Day today and the exuberant colours I’m seeing are a bright spot with this grey cloud coverage.

I myself will be hard to spot in a hot pink Rijina Pyo dress that I bought 10 years ago and haven’t worn in over five.

Stay tuned as myself and photography maestro Eddie Jim bring you all the best style from the races!

If a hard copy is more your go, download and print this one:

Amelia’s Affair has won the first race on cup day at Flemington.

That was an impressive run from the $700,000 two-year old filly.

“That was a massive thrill,” Trainer Annabel Archibald told Nine.

“She is going to take us on a fun ride, she’s very talented.”

Race 1 – Darley Maribyrnong Plate

A New Zealand cricket cult hero’s Melbourne Cup dreams have been dashed with the last-minute scratching of his horse, Asterix.

Stewards ordered the withdrawal of the Chris Waller-trained stayer this morning, but have yet to give reasons behind the decision.

The scratching reduces the Melbourne Cup field to 23.

Mark Greatbatch races Asterix with a group of Kiwi mates and flew out especially to watch it run at Flemington.

The stayer, considered an outsider, was to be ridden by Jye McNeil.

It leaves Waller with just one Cup runner, Soul Of Spain.

Drama at Flemington. Asterix has been scratched from the Melbourne Cup on steward’s order.

For Cup sweep players, the Chris Waller-trained stayer was No.9.

Nine has reported that Asterix has been scratched from the Melbourne Cup today.

Asterix has been scratched by steward’s order with more information to come.

For one week in the year the Birdcage at Flemington racecourse is the epicentre of Melbourne’s social life.

It’s where Geoffrey Edelsten proposed to Gabi Grecko and dropped the diamond ring, Paris Hilton hooked up with Rob Mills and champagne house Mumm installed a swimming pool.

The Birdcage has seen it all over the years from its beginnings as a place to catch sight of the horses as they were saddled up to its transformation into the place to see and be seen trackside.

This is the history of one of the most famous aspects of the Flemington experience.