SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: AUSTRALIAN JOCKEYS REMAIN A MAJOR INFLUENCE IN CUP OUTCOME

By Graham Potter | Monday, November 12, 2018

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Great Britain trained horses filled the trifecta in last Tuesday’s 2018 edition of the Melbourne Cup. The year before Irish trained runners achieved the same result cementing the fact that the hold that foreign trained and bred horses have on the Cup has tightened significantly in recent years.

But, quite appropriately, a hugely important Australian influence on the outcome of the country’s greatest race remains intact with Australian jockeys, Kerrin McEvoy (twice), Corey Brown and Michelle Payne, riding the winners of the last four Melbourne Cups.

McEvoy’s effort on Cross Counter on Tuesday was as good as it gets. The quality of the ride was no surprise as McEvoy has been right up there with the world’s best for a long time.

The Cross Counter result was McEvoy’s third win in the big race. Now thirty-eight years-old, McEvoy first won the Cup aboard Brew in 2000, a huge achievement it itself for a then twenty-year-old.

McEvoy had to wait sixteen years for his next Melbourne Cup success before he scored with Almadin in 2016 (when entering his name alongside the Lloyd Williams legacy in the race) and now, after that great come from last win on Cross Counter on Tuesday (which made history in its own right by giving the mighty Godolphin racing empire their first win in the race) McEvoy is now a three-time winner of the race.

That sees McEvoy join Damien Oliver (1995, 2002, 2013) and Glen Boss (2003, 2004, 2005) on the three Melbourne Cup winners mark, just one behind the record for most winners by a jockey in the race.

That record is held jointly by Bobbie Lewis (The Victory 1902, Patrobas 1915, Artilleryman 1919 & Trivalve 1927) and Harry White (Think Big 1974 and 1975, Arwon 1978 and Hyperno 1979) who have four wins apiece.

Illustrious company indeed.

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Talking about high achievers, Cross Counter’s trainer Charlie Appleby now has a training double to die for on his resume having achieved the remarkable feat of training the winners of both the Epsom Derby and the Melbourne Cup in 2018.

And finally, any racing coverage of the last week would be lacking if it did not mention Enable’s win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs last weekend where Enable became the first Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner to immediately go on to Breeders Cup success.

A face-off between Enable and Winx would be global racing’s true Everest.

I wonder if there is there any sponsor out there willing to try to set up a match race between these two champions?

It is unlikely to happen, but what a mouth-watering prospect it would be if ever it could get off the ground.