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An inconspicuous connection to the race's most influential figure will accompany Stockman in his bid for an old-fashioned Melbourne Cup win.
Stockman is a no-nonsense New Zealand-bred stayer with a profile that is out of place in most modern-day Cups.
But thanks to a link to Bart Cummings's two-time winner Think Big and a faultless build-up replicating the Cups King's training blueprint, momentum is building for Stockman to run well at Flemington.
As a young man with ambitions of having his own stable, Guy Walter strapped Think Big for the 1974 Cup while learning his craft under Cummings.
Walter died suddenly in 2014 but a rich legacy in racing lives on through his brother Jamie, who is at the forefront of racehorse syndication in Australia as the principal of Proven Thoroughbreds.
Stockman will be the first Melbourne Cup runner for the syndicator, who says the horse's progression through the staying ranks has been a surprise.
"It's a lifetime ambition for me to have a Cup runner, let alone one with a reasonable chance," he told AAP.
"I think he is coming right at the right time and every run during the spring has been good."
In a salute to the way Cummings engineered 11 of his 12 Melbourne Cup victories, Stockman ran on Saturday, although unusually, the run was not at Flemington but in Sydney.
He pleased trainer Joe Pride with the manner in which he brushed home in the Rosehill Gold Cup (2000m) to finish just off the placings after dropping back in distance from a St Leger Stakes (2600m) win two weeks earlier.
"One thing I learnt from Guy that he learnt from Bart is they have got to be hard-fit to run two miles (3200m)," Walter said.
"That's why Bart ran so many of winners on the Saturday before the race which is so unfashionable these days."
As part of Pride's plan to keep Stockman in Sydney until as late as possible, the horse arrived in Melbourne in the early hours of Monday after an overnight float trip.
And if Stockman brings Sydney's recent rain with him, the stable will be the last to complain because it will be saddling up a runner with one of the best wet-track records in the race.
