He might have come third, but New Zealand-owned Who Shot Thebarman broke records when it came to how much New Zealanders bet on this year's Melbourne Cup.

The NZ TAB says its $10 million turnover on Tuesday was $1m higher than the previous Cup.

The race that stops two nations garnered 650,000 bets in New Zealand.

TAB bookie and spokesman Mark Stafford said there was a lot of local support for Auckland Cup winner Who Shot Thebarman, owned by the O'Leary brothers near Whanganui.

"He certainly delivered a lot of excitement for his place backers who got $3.60 for every dollar bet," Stafford said.

Who Shot Thebarman was also the first Australian-trained horse to finish in Tuesday's field in an event which is increasingly dominated by foreign horses.

Winner Protectionist was the TAB's third most backed runner and gave one lucky Kiwi a $51,000 win after they bet $1000 on the horse when it was paying $51 odds in October.

By beating runner-up Red Cadeaux, Protectionist delivered the first Melbourne Cup win for Germany.

It is the third time Red Cadeaux has finished the Melbourne Cup as runner-up after also taking that honour in 2011 and 2013.