Without a Fight yesterday beat heavy favorite Vauban to win the A$8 million (US$5.1 million) Melbourne Cup, with jockey Mark Zahra claiming back-to-back victories in a dominant ride.
The seven-year-old gelding stormed clear in the final 100m to hold off Soulcombe and outsider Sheraz in a thrilling finish to the grueling 3,200m handicap at Flemington Racecourse.
Without a Fight had firmed to third favorite at A$8.00 just before the race.
Photo: AFP
The Irish-trained Vauban, priced as the A$5.50 favorite and with Ryan Moore — one of the world’s top jockeys — aboard, finished 14th in the so-called “race that stops a nation.”
Second favorite Gold Trip, the horse Zahra steered to victory last year, faded to 17th on a hot day.
“That’s unbelievable, he was just an absolute gem today,” said Zahra, who won the recent Group 1 Caulfield Cup on Without a Fight and opted to stay with him rather than move back to Gold Trip.
“I was following Alenquer ... in front of him was Gold Trip and in front of him was Vauban. I just thought I’d stay here. They all made their moves and it opened up for me,” he said. “I was on a horse that you could just sit on, he has an electric turn of foot and he just pulled me all the way to the line.”
Zahra is the ninth jockey to ride back-to-back Melbourne Cup winners and Without a Fight became the first horse to clinch the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double since Ethereal in 2001.
“An extraordinary ride. He got him onto the rail from a wide gate, relaxed, switched him off and pretty confident probably the [last] 800m the way he was traveling,” said cotrainer Sam Freedman, who hails from one of Australia’s most prominent racing families.
“He’s a freak,” he said of the horse. “He was excellent.”
A cultural institution in Australia, the Melbourne Cup has been run on the first Tuesday of November since 1876 and is considered so important it is a public holiday in its host state of Victoria.
Held in front of an estimated crowd of 85,000, drinking and socializing took priority over racing for many, with the sound of popping champagne corks accompanying the thundering of hooves.
The race was reduced to 23 starters after Cleveland was scratched due to an elevated temperature, dealing a blow to trainer Lloyd Williams’ chances of winning an eighth Melbourne Cup.
Stricter veterinary checks have been introduced since the deaths of six horses associated with the Cup since 2013.
Right You Are failed to finish, reportedly due to heat stress.
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