Kerrin McEvoy was satisfied with Crime Scene's performance in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

The Godolphin raider was a gallant second to Shocking in the race that stops a nation, leaving McEvoy to remark: "He ran a great race and gave us a good thrill. The other horse headed me at the furlong but my horse really let go well."

Mourilyan was making his first start since returning to the care of South African handler Herman Brown and his rider Glyn Schofield felt his mount just fell short in a fast-finishing third.

He said: "This horse kept improving, kept on bursting through. I tried to follow Kerrin when he came out, but when I went for him at the end, there wasn't much there."

Master O'Reilly was finishing fourth for the second successive year and his rider Vlad Duric blamed the lack of early pace.

"They went too slow coming out of the straight and slowed up mid-race. It was always going to be hard for my horse coming from the back," he explained.

Brad Rawiller thought defending champion Viewed enjoyed no sort of luck in the race.

"It was too slow for us. I would have liked to have been on the back of Shocking to bring us into the race," he said.

"I got forced onto the heels of one going down the straight and we nearly came down. We were lucky to stay up. I had two horses at one stage trying to stay inside me and ended up in strife for 100 metres. (We) got on heels and nearly came down but fortunately stayed up.

"From there to the winning post we were in a fair bit of trouble there. With 58kg it was going to be hard from there."

Zac Purton also believes Munsef did not get the rub of the green.

He added: "(It was a) bit disappointing because I had a good run.

"I was trailing the second horse, I had the winner outside me. Then at about the 800 metre (mark) Nick Hall (rider of eighth C'est La Guerre) came out under my neck and put me out of the race."

Danny Nikolic also pointed to the lack of early speed as a possible reason for Basaltico's lacklustre effort.

He said: "He struggled. He had a nice run, they went very slow and he was a beaten horse a long way out.

"I was in trouble at the 1200m and at the half mile when they made their runs, I couldn't tack onto any of them."