"It's unbelievable," said triumphant trainer Jon. "I've been in greyhounds a long time and I never thought this would happen."

Lord Ducal jumped fairly from box 7 but drove through a narrow gap between Dyna Lachlan and Octare, and with trouble close to the rail on the first turn, found himself in the lead.

The black speedster extended his margin down the back straight and proved far too good in the run to the line to defeat the gallant Dyna Lachlan, who recorded his fourth minor placing in six group race finals, by 2? lengths.

Mr Moorooduc recovered from heavy interference at the first turn to finish third.

"I said six months ago this dog [Lord Ducal] was good enough to win a Melbourne Cup," said Roberts.

"He did cost me a lot of money early days. I knew he could run but if there was trouble he'd find it. He has improved."

Lord Ducal's winning time of 29.53 seconds was the second fastest in the race's 54-year history, just 0.02 seconds outside of the race record set by three-time Group 1 winner Betty's Angel.

It was the couple's first Solo Melbourne Cup finalist since Plugger, named after then St Kilda spearhead Tony Lockett, contested the 1988 final.

Owned and bred by Jon's wife Jenny, Lord Ducal is a distant relative of Plugger, and entered the Solo Melbourne Cup as the least experienced greyhound in the race. The win took Lord Ducal's career prizemoney to $217,715. The Solo Melbourne Cup is the culmination of one of Australia's richest greyhound racing carnivals, and proved a particular triumph for super-sire Bombastic Shiraz.

A winner of the Melbourne 'Triple Crown' - the Topgun, Shootout and Melbourne Cup - in 2003, Bombastic Shiraz sired the winner of each leg of the 2009 Triple Crown with Cindeen Shelby (Topgun), Velocette (Shootout) and Lord Ducal (Melbourne Cup).