Some average male swimmers would have lapped John Konrads if you simply compare their times.

Similarly, horses racing 100 years ago competed under far different training, breeding and feeding conditions to their modern counterparts.

But if you dominate in your time there is some gauge.

Don Bradman is probably the only Australian who stands tall across any cricket era.

Having said that, I think the concept of a Greatest Race Never Run as a promotion for the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup this year is a beauty. The launch was only a few days ago and already there is great debate on the composition of the field let alone the ultimate winner.

The finishing order will be decided on the votes of 22 officials and media figures. The number eligible to cast a vote should iron out any major abnormality in the count.

When the result is made public I'm sure there will be long debate in bars and offices across the nation.

Victorian Greg Carpenter was on a kicking to nothing with his final field. For mine he did a super job.

THE Magic Millions company has enlisted the aid of some generous Queensland and New South Wales breeders to raise much-needed funds for young Gold Coast leukaemia sufferer Jye Yeomans.

Jye, 4, is the son of Scott and Youlah Yeomans, who have to spend a lot of their time in Brisbane where their son is having intensive treatment.

Scott, whose late grandfather Alan was a top-class jockey in Melbourne and later a trainer at the Coast, worked as a groundsman at the MM complex for six years until he stood down after learning of his son's illness. He was highly regarded by vendors for his friendly help at the sales and they have rallied to the cause.

Nominations to 22 stallions have been offered for sale at the August 15 MM sale.

PUT the jockeys' premiership tussle to one side for a moment and laud the riding efforts of Stathi Katsidis and Jim Byrne in the past season.

Katsidis (171 wins) and Byrne (150) were at the head of the national jockeys' premiership which counts wins on all tracks in the season.

It is the first time Queenslanders have figured so prominently.

Both are in the same "stable" under the management of Trevor Lanskey. They have been amazing with their work ethic, not to mention skills.