Today on Melbourne Cup day, the race that stops two nations, spare a thought for Gingernut, the Katikati ginger cat who is starting out on demolishing $200 of cat food.

The cat food is his prize for winning the 2017 Meowbourne Cup race at the Katikati War Memorial Hall.

The More FM Drive Time show hosted by Lana Searle and Jason Gunn brought together five cats of different ages, breeds and personalities to race down their lanes for the big prize – and a trophy.

More FM Drive hosts Lana Searle (left) and Jason Gunn (right) with season one NZ idol winner Ben Lummis.

'The first year we trialled it with a couple of cats in the boardroom at work,” says Lana talking to SunLive after yesterday's event.

'It was so funny and so erratically perfect we decided to take it on the road.

'And so we added another cat and we got the services of the first ever New Zealand Idol winner Ben Lummis. He sang the national anthem to kick it all off and then off the race went at 4pm.

'One of the cats had quite a consistent walk, but in this case slow and steady got pipped at the post by an angry ginger cat.”

Second was a large British Blue named Cruz, third is believed to be a small tabby moggy with big ears.

Time was about 45 seconds, which is quicker than last year, where cats were running back and forth.

'We had lanes, it's still hard, they're known to jump,” says Lana.

'You can't actually tell a cat what to do. That's why it gets so entertaining. The two years we have had it there's been drama, whether it's been a cat fight or a cat running and hiding behind a fridge. This year we had a cat run up on stage, there was all sorts of fuss going on.

'No cats ran away. We locked all the doors to the hall. We couldn't have the doors open and there were a few carts roaming around the hall.”

The cats' owners could try and entice their cats down the lanes with treats.

'But ultimately it's a big old fluke,” says Lana.