For many the Melbourne Cup is simply a four letter word - Bart. Australia's greatest living trainer is known to the once a year punter as the Cups King due to his 12 victories in the country's most famous race.

Bart Cummings is officially a legend in his own lifetime with both the Racing Hall of Fame and Sporting Hall of Fame acknowledging his achievements.

Apart from his 12 Melbourne Cups, those achievements include more than 240 other Group One wins with the late TJ Smith the only trainer to do better.

But no-one comes close to Cummings when it comes to the Melbourne Cup and he will give the nation something to cheer again on Tuesday with three runners - Viewed, Roman Emperor and Allez Wonder.

Etienne de Mestre, who trained the first winner Archer, won the race five times while modern day trainer Lee Freedman who prepared Makybe Diva for the final two of her three wins, also has five.

So what is it that sets Bart apart from the rest.

He says the key to any horse is patience and particularly so of stayers.

"Patience is the cheapest thing in racing - and the least used," is one of Cummings' favourite sayings.

Cummings targets yearling sales looking for classic horses, those which can win a Derby or an Oaks and then maybe later on, a Melbourne Cup.

As a strapper for his father Jim, Cummings got his first taste of Melbourne Cup victory when Comic Court won in 1950.

It took another 15 years for him put his own name on the trophy but once he did, he was on a roll.

Light Fingers was his fourth runner in the Cup and her victory over stablemate Ziema in 1965 began a three year domination of the race.

In 1966 Galilee beat Light Fingers and the following year Red Handed made it number three for Cummings.

Over the next few years Cummings' best finishes were fourth placings until 1974 and the aptly named Think Big who scored a memorable win over stablemate Leilani for his owner, Malaysian businessman Dato Tan Chin Nam.

Think Big didn't win another race for 12 months but in typical Cummings fashion, was primed for the first Tuesday in November.

It was another quinella for Cummings with Holiday Waggon second.

In 1976, Gold And Black ran second and came back the following year to go one better.

Hyperno's win in 1979 would be Cummings' last for more than a decade but he never gave up trying.

In 1990 he and a young Darren Beadman combined with Kingston Rule, the fastest modern-day Cup winner.

A few months before the 1991 Cup, a moderately performed mare made her way from New Zealand to the Cummings stable. She was entered in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups as an afterthought and with little expectation.

It didn't take long to figure out she hated wet tracks and, as fortune would have it, a spring drought ensued.

Let's Elope put together four straight wins - among them the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

Unlike Let's Elope, 1996 Cup winner Saintly was with Cummings from day one.

He bred the son of Sky Chase from his mare All Grace and his ability was evident from the start.

He won the Australian Cup in his three-year-old autumn but then returned to Sydney where he ran into Octagonal. Try as he might he couldn't get past him in the Rosehill Guineas, the Mercedes Classic or the AJC Australian Derby.

He got his revenge the following spring when he won the Cox Plate with Octagonal fifth in his attempt to win a second time.

It was on to the Melbourne Cup and with the deeply religious Darren Beadman aboard, the "Horse from Heaven" scored a comprehensive victory over Count Chivas.

Three years later, Cummings took control of a West Australian called Rogan Josh. The winner of the 1998 Bunbury Cup and a close runner up in 1999, Rogan Josh showed Cummings enough to suggest he could be a genuine contender in the east.

After his win in the Mackinnon Stakes three days earlier, punters flocked to him in the Cup and he delivered a fairytale result for his owner, Darwin schoolteacher Wendy Green, who had realised her dream of having a Melbourne Cup winner trained by the master.

Nine years later, just when it seemed Cummings might be slowing down, Viewed gave him his 12th Cup in a finish that had many fooled.

English horse Bauer surged to the line but failed by just a nose.

Once again the Cup was all about Bart.