The army of navy which will descend on Australia's richest race is the biggest factor in determining how the race will be run and while team riding is strictly prohibited under the rules of racing, there will undoubtedly be strength in numbers in Tuesday's race for Team Williams.
Dunlop summarised it as such after Saturday's barrier draw. "I hope Mr Williams isn't allowed to boss this race. It is not ideal, let's not beat about the bush. We are drawn wide. I think the most interesting thing is Lloyd Williams' horses are all very well drawn.''
Williams response was to accuse Dunlop of showing 'bad manners'.
MORE: Melbourne Cup myths busted! | Melbourne Cup 2013: Horse-by-horse preview
The most significant variable in any Melbourne Cup is luck. If you get it you can win, if you don't you can't. It is as simple as that. With 24 horses and jockeys competing not only for $6 million in prize money but a chance to etch themselves in the annals of history, positions are fiercely contested and split second decisions can be the difference between winning and losing.
On a perfect level playing field, every horse out there is a combatant, fighting tooth-and-nail to ensure the horse on either side, in front or behind, cannot beat it past the post. No quarter is asked nor given. But in the heat of battle on Tuesday afternoon, can we be guaranteed of seeing that from Lloyd's half dozen?
Twelve months ago, Green Moon's Melbourne Cup win was set-up by a 'tow-in' from stablemate Mourayan. When it was time to get his horse into the race, Brett Prebble knew who he had to follow and when Mourayan was no longer able to sustain his run, Green Moon simply got to his stablemate's outside, powered to the lead and recorded an easy win.
It was a perfectly legitimate way to win a Melbourne Cup and there can be no suggestion that it was against either the spirit of the rules of racing. Prebble played clever, while the rest rode for luck.
On Tuesday instead of having one horse to take him into the race, Prebble could find himself with as many as two or three. Or Prebble himself could find that he has a stablemate in tow as he makes his way through the field from around the 800m mark.
When the six Lloyd Williams' jockeys, Nick Hall, Hugh Bowman, Brett Prebble, Michael Rodd, Steven Arnold and Brenton Avdulla, look left, right and behind them at the 800m mark and they see themselves surrounded in a sea of navy, they will know they are in friendly company.
The fundamental question, and it is the one which Dunlop essentially asked is: If one Williams horse is under pressure, and the one on its inside is travelling, do you think that the jockey aboard will fight as hard to ensure that horse doesn't get the run as they would if it weren't a horse from the same stable? The proof will be in the pudding, but I think we all know where this one ends.
The barrier draw has played a major role in strengthening's Williams' immunisation against the vagaries of bad luck. Green Moon (10), Sea Moon (7), Seville (9), Fawkner (8) and Masked Marvel (2) all drew inside ten, while the horse which is most likely to press forward, Mourayan, will come across from barrier 19.
That means that there is every chance of Williams' horses racing together in the run.
Racing authorities see no issue with one owner having such a strong influence on our great race.
They also have no issue with the methods in which Lloyd Williams runs his racing interests, in that he employs a trainer who is not permitted to speak to the media and acts more of a foreman to his master, who is not a registered trainer.
Former chief steward Des Gleeson tried to get to the bottom of the peculiar set-up at Macedon Lodge in 2006, when Graeme Rogerson 'oversaw' the Cup preparations of Efficient despite spending much of his time in New Zealand.
Racing Victoria 'sought assurances', Williams stopped playing them for a bunch of mugs and appointed a local trainer, firstly John Sadler and now Robert Hickmott, who is so anonymous 99 per cent of racing fans would struggle to pick out of a line-up.
There is no suggestion Lloyd Williams is doing anything he is not permitted to by Racing Victoria, but to suggest he doesn't get an advantage from his 'unique' set-up at Macedon Lodge is simply not true.
In the same way it is disingenuous for anyone to rebuke Dunlop's claim that Williams' six-horse army is the most significant tactical factor in Tuesday's great race.