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An old-fashioned approach has given a new-age racing partnership its finest moment with top-weight Gold Trip winning the Melbourne Cup.

In a triumph for spring perseverance, Gold Trip defeated Emissary and stablemate High Emocean in Australia's greatest race.

Gold Trip made light of his 57.5kg under jockey Mark Zahra, revelling in the soft ground to provide co-trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace with a Melbourne Cup breakthrough.

Maher and Eustace are renowned for employing a sports science slant to their training methods, using data and technology to fine-tune a team of thoroughbreds that is spread across multiple Victorian stables and a satellite operation in Sydney.

The training partnership had five runners in the race.

"They're the best trainers of stayers," Zahra said.

"That's one thing I had confidence in - their training. Because I was quite vocal I didn't think he'd get the distance."

In the end, Gold Trip's victory was built more on home-straight courage than any analytics.

Of all the Melbourne Cup runners, none has been as busy during the spring as Gold Trip.

It is rare for the modern-day thoroughbred to contest the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup in one campaign.

But in a throwback to another era, Gold Trip went agonisingly close to winning the Caulfield Cup before taking his place against the elite in the Cox Plate and finishing unplaced.

"This horse is quite dicey and he's done a fantastic job. And to run in three of the big ones and have him present in the Cup like that was fantastic," Maher said.

Gold Trip delivered for only the second win of his career and his first in Australia.

Zahra settled Gold Trip among the tailenders in the hope he could ambush his rivals late in the race.

The import gradually improved deep on the track with cover from the 600m and he was ready to issue a challenge at the 400m.

"I literally thought I'm a bit far back here but my one plan was not to be too close because I thought if I used fuel early I'd be weak late," Zahra said.

"As they jammed up, I got to travel up and up and I thought 'I'm still travelling so good here'."

Gold Trip, a $21 chance, dashed past the UK raider and favourite Deauville Legend ($4.40) only to have Emissary ($26) emerge as a threat from the ruck.

When the race got serious over the final 200m, it was Gold Trip who surged again for a decisive two-length win.

Emissary held on for second ahead of the fast-finishing High Emocean ($41) who got past Deauville Legend to take the minor placing - a further 1-1/4 lengths further back.

Gold Trip is the second Melbourne Cup winner for racehorse syndicator Australian Bloodstock after the German-trained Protectionist scored in 2014.

Maher has now completed a career sweep of the Melbourne spring carnival's most important races.

Twenty-two runners faced the starter but Gold Trip's stablemate Interpretation was eased out of the race, leaving Camorra the last horse to cross the line.

In finishing fourth, Deauville Legend was easily the best of the overseas-trained runners with Without A Fight ($12) dropping out after looming on the home turn.

© AAP 2022

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Taylor Swift says she is "in shambles" after becoming the first artist to claim the top 10 slots on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

All the songs are from her latest album Midnights, released on October 21.

The previous record was held by US rapper Drake, who had nine of the top 10 songs on chart for one week in September 2021.

Reacting to the news, Swift tweeted: "10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album??? I AM IN SHAMBLES."

Her first single from the album, Anti-Hero, claimed the number one spot and marked her ninth career number one.

Also included in the top 10 were Lavender Haze, Maroon, Snow On The Beach, Midnight Rain, Bejeweled, Question...?, You're On Your Own, Kid, Karma and Vigilante S**t.

Swift also managed to chart every song on the 20-track deluxe version of the album, Midnights (3am Edition).

It comes after the singer songwriter also dominated the UK charts last week, with Midnights and Anti-Hero landing number one spots.

The electronica-style album has become the fastest-selling album of the year so far, overtaking Harry Styles' chart-topping Harry's House, which previously held the 2022 title, according to the Official Charts Company.

Following its release, Midnights racked up 204,000 chart sales in seven days, more than doubling Swift's previous personal best of 90,300, which she achieved with her album 1989, released in 2014.

It claimed the biggest first week of album sales since Adele's 30 was released last November and takes the title of the most streamed album of the year in its opening week, with 72.5 million streams across the seven days.

Shortly after its release, Midnights also broke the Spotify record for most-streamed album in a day.

Following that announcement, Swift thanked her fans for "doing something mind blowing".

© PAA 2022

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Instagram says it is working on an issue that has left a seemingly large number of users locked out of their accounts.

Some users reported seeing a message that they were locked out but were still able to scroll through their feeds.

Others posting on Twitter said they were completely shut out.

Some reported that their number of followers dropped, presumably because those accounts were locked.

The number of people complaining of being locked out of their accounts began to spike about 11.30pm on Monday AEDT.

It was unclear whether the problem was an internal issue or whether the social media site had been hacked.

"We are aware that some Instagram users in different parts of the world are having issues accessing their Instagram accounts," a spokesperson for Meta said.

"We're working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologise for the inconvenience."

Users flooded social media platforms about the issue and Instagram acknowledged the problem on Twitter at 1.14am AEDT.

In a couple of hours, the tweet had received more than 14,000 comments and was retweeted more than 40,000 times.

© AP 2022

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Kerrin McEvoy will use a template forged out of his most recent Melbourne Cup victory in a quest for a shot at Australian racing history.

One of the world's premier jockeys, McEvoy will chase at record-equalling fourth Melbourne Cup win at Flemington on Tuesday.

And he will do it on one of the shortest-priced favourites of the modern era as English stayer Deauville Legend tries to add his name to the honour roll of international winners of Australia's greatest race.

McEvoy won the Melbourne Cup on Brew in 2000, Almandin in 2016 and Cross Counter in 2018.

He says Deauville Legend reminds him of Cross Counter as a northern hemisphere three-year-old who is on his way through the staying ranks.

"Deauville Legend has got very similar formlines to Cross Counter and he looked the right one for me this year," McEvoy said.

Cross Counter carried 51kg to victory and Deauville has 55kg but McEvoy says there is less depth to this year's race.

"You can argue that the local talent is a little bit thin on the ground compared to other years," he said.

"And the older horse talent out of the UK is probably a little bit thin as well.

"All those things put together had me angle towards Deauville Legend.

"I must admit it's a little bit more weight than is ideal but he's a classy individual."

Deauville Legend held firm as a clear-cut favourite at the Cup eve Call of the Card as a $3.60.

He will be striving to become the first favourite to win since Fiorente saluted almost a decade ago.

Rain is forecast to impact the $8 million race, making it a proper endurance test over the 3200m.

Deauville Legend is one of two overseas-trained runners.

The other is fellow UK stayer Without A Fight who shares the second line of betting with Realm Of Flowers, one of the best-backed runners during the past week.

© AAP 2022