Nick Williams and Terry Henderson, two of Australia's biggest investors in European stayers, believe a cap on the number of international runners in the Melbourne Cup would diminish the race's standing on the world stage.
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Hall-of-Fame trainer Lee Freedman, speaking at the Carbine Club luncheon on Saturday, called for racing administrators to review the entry conditions for the Melbourne Cup and restrict the number of internationals to invite-only.
"It never hurts to re-look at decisions to see if we can do it better," Freedman said.
"I can't help feeling that we've lost more than we've gained in this current format. Absolutely we need international competition, but these should be invitees.
"The race needs to come back to being an Australasian race as much as it is a European race.
"It won't hurt if the people that have the power just have a look."
But Williams said there wouldn't be enough depth in Australia's staying ranks to fill the bottom half of a 24-horse field.
"I'm a great friend of Lee Freedman's, we've had an incredibly long association, he's a good buddy, but I just don't understand the logic of that argument," Williams, whose father Lloyd has won six Melbourne Cups as an owner, said.
"What we've got this year, which makes this race fantastic, is that there are a range of different form lines coming in and everyone would say it's a very even race.
"If we're going to cap, for want of a better term, the runners that come, we're going to have to fill up the race somehow and what that's going to do is increase the tail of the race because the horses that get in won't be good enough and I think that's going to take away from what the race has become.
"The race is the best two-mile race in the world and I think we've got to embrace that for what it is."
Henderson said a cap on Europeans running in the Melbourne Cup would be a "backwards" step for the race that stops the nation.
"If we want the Melbourne Cup to be what we say it is, one of the best two-mile handicaps in the world, we have to make it open to all comers," the OTI Racing director said.
"If we want to have a quasi-invitational race, we're not going to have the quality we now enjoy or the camaraderie of the guys that come across each year.
"We're not going to be able to have the column inches in the paper that are generated by often very unknown horses, we're not going to have the excitement that goes with 'Frosty' [Damian] Lane going into next Tuesday [gunning for the grand slam].
"The fact that we've got this internationalisation really does boost a whole raft of key aspects that make up what the Melbourne Cup is. That doesn't take away at all the Melbourne Cup being Australia's race.
"I think what it does is make sure the Melbourne Cup is on the world stage as Australia's race."
Twenty of the 24 horses in this year's Melbourne Cup started their racing careers in Europe, while The Chosen One is New Zealand-trained.
Surprise Baby (New Zealand-bred by Melbourne Cup winner Shocking), Vow And Declare and Youngstar are the only horses that have raced their entire careers in Australia.
- SMH/The Age
