By Mark Ryan

MELBOURNE, Sept 1 AAP - Lloyd Williams-owned stayers Alandi and Efficient head the weights for the Melbourne Cup but history is against either horse winning the 150th anniversary of the great race.

Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter, who gave the pair equal topweight of 58kg in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, said the last original topweight to win the Melbourne Cup was Comic Court (59.5kg) in 1950.

"Fifty-one have run including 17 since Comic Court," he said.

"And none of 20 original topweights to have run in the Caulfield Cup have won."

Carpenter said Alandi had won two of the four Group One races in Europe for horses older than three at further than 2400m.

"He won the Irish St Leger and then they took him to France where he won the Prix du Cadran," he said.

"Last year he beat Yeats in both of those races and also at the other occasion that they met."

Carpenter said four-time Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats had been the dominant stayer in Europe the past "three or four years".

He said Efficient, the 2007 Melbourne Cup winner, had been the benchmark southern hemisphere stayer for the past three years.

Williams has nominated 23 horses, including a number of European imports, in his bid to win the race for a fourth time.

Reigning Cup winner Shocking received 57kg for his title defence, 6kg more than he carried to give trainer Mark Kavanagh his first success in the race last year.

"Carrying 57kg is a challenge but to win back-to-back Melbourne Cups should be a challenge," Carpenter said of the $12 favourite with TAB Sportsbet.

"It is the same weight to 2008 Melbourne Cup winner Viewed last year, a weight he carried to victory in the Caulfield Cup."

Master trainer Bart Cummings, 82, currently recovering in a Sydney hospital after fracturing his pelvis in a fall at home, has a strong representation as he shoots for a record seven Caulfield Cups and 13 Melbourne Cups.

His Queensland Derby winner Dariana (51.5kg) and Cox Plate hero So You think (56kg) are equal second picks in Melbourne Cup betting at $14 with VRC Oaks winner Faint Perfume (52kg) at $16, Precedence (50.5kg) at $21 and Brightnight (50kg) at $26.

Carpenter said So You Think was the highest-weighted four-year-old in the Cup since Octagonal, the 1995 Cox Plate winner as a three-year-old, received 56.5kg in 1996.

Among the impressive line-up of Australian four-year-old entrants are AJC Australian Derby winner Shoot Out, who received 55kg, and Victoria Derby winner Monaco Consul who has 54kg.

"I expected him to get around 54.5 kilos, so 55kg isn't too bad," Gold Coast trainer John Wallace said of Shoot Out's weight.

The Gai Waterhouse-trained Once Were Wild, who won this year's AJC Australian Oaks, has 51.5kg.

World racing powerhouse Godolphin is well represented with 2009 English St Leger winner Mastery and Arc de Triomphe placegetter Cavalryman both receiving 57.5kg and Campanologist, a recent winner of back-to-back Group One races in Germany, getting 56kg.

Irish trainer Dermot Weld, the only European to win the Melbourne Cup, has four entries including Ascot Gold Cup winner Rite Of Passage (57kg) and Profound Beauty (54kg).

Rite Of Passage has a unique profile having had seven of his 10 starts in either jumps races or National Hunt flat races.

"His Ascot Gold Cup victory was achieved in only his third run in a professional flat race and his first in a black-type event," Carpenter said.

Veteran Japanese stayer and Group Two winner Tokai Trick, who received 54.5kg, is considered a strong chance to make the trip but Jaguar Mail (57.5kg) and Meiner Kitz (57kg) are unlikely.