Cross Counter gives UK their first Melbourne Cup victory
BRILLIANT RIDE: KERRIN MCEVOY BRINGS LIGHTLY WEIGHTED RUNNER FROM NEAR LAST Trainer Appleby delighted to have achieved landmark result for Godolphin.
The race that stops a nation was finally won by the nation who has most fallen for Australia's most iconic sporting event on a day of two historic firsts.
Charlie Appleby's lightly weighted three-year-old Cross Counter, given a wonderful ride by Kerrin McEvoy, handed Britain and Godolphin a first success in the Lexus Melbourne Cup yesterday.
The pioneering maiden international winner came 25 years ago when Dermot Weld's Vintage Crop proved it could be done. It has taken Britain another quarter of a century to master the art, but when they finally did so it was en masse.
In the final 300m Charlie Fellowes and then Hughie Morrison thought A Prince Of Arran and Marmelo were going to make them the first Brit to train a Melbourne Cup winner, but McEvoy still managed to come from near last to win going away.
A Prince Of Arran had travelled strongly into the straight and when Michael Walker sent Saturday's Lexus winner on Fellowes dared to dream. "He's run huge, I can't believe it," he said. "There was a point there I thought we might have the Melbourne Cup but he just got tired in the last half furlong (100m)."
It was Morrison's Marmelo who first swept past, yet his moment of excitement lasted even shorter. "There was a moment when he hit the front, but he was run down by an exceptionally good horse and weight for age makes a lot of difference," he said. "My heart had a quick flicker, but then I could see the red cap appearing and it lasted all of a split second."
But by the time Fellowes and Morrison had got excited McEvoy already knew he had it in the bag.
"I got out at the 400 and knew I was going to finish but I was unaware how much running the horses in front of me had left. At the 300 I realised I had a chance and by the 250 I thought 'I've got this covered' and 'really? Is this happening again?' "
It was happening again – for a third time and McEvoy produced a wondrous ride. Sat second last throughout, upon straightening up he had only passed a handful of runners and had no option but to angle out and circumnavigate the field. With a 200m to run he still had several lengths to make up but having got into the race with 51kg he absolutely flew home.
For Appleby it was an incredible way to cap a dream season.
When he started training five years ago he named the Derby and Melbourne Cup as the two races he most wanted to win.
In a stellar year in which he has now won 12 races at the highest level, he has lifted those two most prized trophies. – Racingpost.com