Jockey Jamie Melham became the second woman to win the Melbourne Cup after Half Yours saluted on a wet track under cloudy skies at Flemington, in front of around 80,000 spectators. The five-year-old gelding – the only Australian-bred horse in the race – finished two lengths ahead of Goodie Two Shoes, with Middle Earth third.
Interviewed on the track immediately afterwards, Melham, who created history as the first female jockey to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double, said: “What just happened? Oh my god”.
“This is what we do it for, this is why we get up out of bed every morning at 4am, work our asses off for the last 15 years I’ve been in this industry,” she told Channel Nine. “It’s tough, it’s not all glorious and perfect as everyone can see sometimes.”
Melham’s victory comes 10 years after Michelle Payne became the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup on Prince of Penzance. Payne interviewed her after the race, saying: “Welcome to the club”.
Melham said she has had an “amazing” year, including a wedding and some successful days on the track, “but nothing ever ever compares to this feeling right now”.
The 29-year-old became the first female jockey to win the Caulfield Cup last month, and overcame the death of her grandfather last week.
“The last thing he watched was the Caulfield Cup and he was such a big supporter of mine, so he’s up there opening those gaps for me because I needed a few gaps opened.”
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained horse surged to the lead with 200m to go and won easily ahead of Goodie Two Shoes.
Winning jockey Jamie Melham with 2015 race winner Michelle Payne. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images
Payne said Melham has “revolutionised racing” and praised the bond she makes with the horses she rides, predicting more women would follow in their footsteps.
“She’s an out-and-out athlete and the fact that she just has these connections with the horses, you can see that,” Payne said. “Honestly, it’s just a new world we’re living in and the young girls coming through, it’s exciting.”
Melham’s rise to the summit of Australian racing has not been without adversity. She had to be placed in an induced coma in 2023 after a fall. Her mother, former Olympic speed skater Karen Gardiner-Kah, became emotional remembering that period. “It’s horrible for any parent to go through what we went through,” she said.
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Her father, John Kah, another Olympic speed skater, said the victory was a relief after the high expectations of recent months. “She was a favourite for the Caulfield Cup, that was a month of being a favourite, that’s a long time, and then [she was] pretty well the favourite for this one as well,” he said. “Nice to get it done, I would hate her to finish a career without winning a Melbourne Cup. That is the pinnacle.”
Irish trained Al Riffa carried a topweight of 59kg and entered the day as favourite. By the afternoon however, late support had pushed Presage Nocturne into favouritism ahead of Al Riffa, Valiant King and Half Yours.
Winning trainer Tony McEvoy said it was an incredible moment. “From the days we grew up, the Melbourne Cup was everything,” he said.
His son and co-trainer Calvin described Half Yours as an “amazing” horse. “What a horse, he’s just continued to raise the bar,” he said.
Of the $4.5m winner’s prize money, the owners receive around $3.8m, the trainers get $450,000 and the jockey takes home $225,000.
