There is no doubting that the Melbourne Cup is a terrific spectacle that grabs the attention of punters and the like from around the country.

Men from all over grab the suit and tie and head for a day at the races whilst the fairer sex doll themselves up and grab the fascinator as they walk out the door.

Without question the hype surrounding this year's Cup, the 150th to be run, was at its peak as dual Cox Plate winner, So You Think, was a short priced favourite to win his first Melbourne Cup.

The excitement was at fever pitch as celebrities meandered around the Birdcage whilst the average punter was stuck in the rain. As the 23 horses were loaded into the barriers an incredible $110 million was wagered on the race that stops the nation, and that was only in Victoria and New South Wales.

After the race was run and won by the French trained and Hong Kong ridden, Americain, who came from behind to lead Maluckyday and the Bart Cummings trained, So You Think, past the winning post, there was excitement and despair everywhere.

There was no one more excited, it seems, as Barry Brown, Australasian vice-president of the race's airline sponsor, Emirates.

Brown estimated the Emirates Melbourne Cup had a global television audience of 800 million. This figure of course is an estimate and one that should not be taken too seriously when ranking the global reach of this great race.

If this extraordinary figure is correct than that would suggest that one in every eight people on earth saw Americain's win.

Clearly this is not the case and any suggestion that alludes to this should be treated with the brevity it deserves.

At 800 million the audience would be several times bigger than the World Cup soccer final, eight times bigger than the Super Bowl, 20 times bigger than Melbourne's Formula One grand prix, and make Wimbledon look like the Ballarat Open.

Furthermore Brown says Emirates is about to enter talks to renew its sponsorship of the Cup.

Brown's TV audience claim surely has given the Victoria Racing Club the leverage to extract a world record sponsorship deal from the airline. How convenient these figures would be when the sponsorship deal is mooted in the coming days.

It would be easy to think that the champagne that flows so freely at the Cup has lubricated Brown's claim, but as a representative of Dubai-based Emirates I'm not sure he'd be allowed to let champers pass his lips.

The exaggeration does add some perspective though to how those property values in Dubai were exposed as massively inflated when the Global Financial Crisis hit.

Maybe it's something in the water off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, but whatever it is, it may help seal sponsorship talks but surely it is hindering the credibility of Mr Brown.

Now there is certainly a case to be made for the potential reach of the Melbourne Cup to be higher than the actual viewership. But I am sure such an obvious mistake would not have been made by a man of the calibre of Brown.

All the same it is figures like the ones suggested by Brown on Tuesday that further muddy the already murky ratings waters. Hopefully we can all take a grain a salt and digest this guestimate whilst enjoying another replay of Americain saluting at the finishing post.