Gai Waterhouse’s controversial year ended in triumph with Fiorente giving the Sydney trainer her first Melbourne Cup win.

Fiorente’s win in front of 100,000 racegoers at Flemington on Tuesday, sealed Waterhouse’s standing as one of Australia’s greatest horse trainers.

It also gave Damien Oliver his third Melbourne Cup, two months after he returned to racing from serving a ban for betting on a rival horse in a race he was riding in in 2010.

Fiorente staged a thrilling duel with Red Cadeaux before gaining the upperhand at the 100m.

Mount Athos finished third.

Waterhouse’s victory came after twice training the runner-up, Te Akau Nick in 1993 and Fiorente in last year’s race.

It also confirmed Waterhouse as one of the most resilient figures in Australian racing.

She has been in the headlines since a public fall-out with high profile owner John Singleton and an ongoing battle with Sydney racing stewards.

Waterhouse trained most of Singleton’s racehorses until the glamour mare More Joyous was beaten in the All Aged Stakes during the Sydney autumn racing carnival.

Singleton claimed Waterhouse’s son, the bookmaker Tom Waterhouse, had told rugby league star Andrew Johns that More Joyous couldn’t win the All Aged before the mare ran unplaced in the race.