‘Welcome to the club’: Payne’s special embrace after Melham wins dramatic Melbourne Cup

A decade after Michelle Payne smashed racing’s glass ceiling, Jamie Melham became the first woman to win the coveted Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double with a brilliant ride aboard Half Yours in a dramatic race at Flemington .

Melham produced an outstanding ride for father-and-son trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy on the 10th anniversary of Payne’s history-making achievement as the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup on Prince Of Penzance.

On a rain-affected Cup Day that attracted a crowd of 84,374, rival jockey Jye McNeil was suspended for 18 meetings for causing interference in the famous race, and Blake Shinn was taken to hospital after breaking his leg in a nasty fall two races later.

But this Cup day belonged to Melham, who was embraced by Payne after piloting Half Yours to victory.

“What just happened? Oh my god,” Melham exclaimed before she finished her post-race interview by yelling, “I just won the Melbourne Cup!”

“Welcome to the club,” Payne, who is working for Channel Nine, told Melham after the race.

Melham settled Half Yours on the fence from barrier eight and rated him beautifully from midfield, waiting for a run before the champion unleashed a withering finish. The horse did not have to run a millimetre more than required as Melham patiently waited for the gap to open up before moving one off the fence to join the leaders.

It was a perfect ride, exactly as she had envisaged when outlining her ideal scenario a day earlier.

“What a horse. He just continues to raise the bar,” Calvin McEvoy said afterwards of Half Yours, the only Australian-bred horse in the field.

Half Yours is the third horse after Ethereal and Without A Fight to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne cup double this century.

Joseph O’Brien’s Goodie Two Shoes ran second and the Ciaron Maher-trained Middle Earth ran third with Ethan Brown on board. River of Stars was fourth and rising star Celine Gaudray – Brown’s fiancee – finished fifth in her first Cup ride, on Torranzino.

O’Brien was his usual pragmatic self after training the runner-up and race favourite Al Riffa into seventh place. “That’s racing,” he said.

Half Yours finished the race with blood around his mouth, but stewards said the horse was OK.

“A post-race examination by the race day veterinary team found that Half Yours had sustained a minor laceration to the inside of its left cheek. The horse is fine and no veterinary treatment was required,” the stewards said.

Buckaroo finished last and Racing Victoria stewards confirmed he suffered “EIPH”, or exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage.

Trainer Chris Waller said he had no regrets about the decision to run the seven-year-old in the Cup.

“He didn’t get his breathing right and was too keen,” Waller told this masthead.

The horse is expected to make a full recovery.

Melham now sits among the sport’s greats, with five rides in the Cup for two thirds and a win.

“It’s been long enough, 10 years, I had to do it sooner or later,” she said of her new place in history.

“You don’t dream of this day because you think about it, you don’t think you’re actually going to win the Melbourne Cup … No feeling can describe what I felt just then, what I’m still feeling.

“I’m absolutely speechless. Mum and Dad have brought out the tears again, I’d just stopped crying.

“This is what we wake up at stupid o’clock for every morning to come to these big days and win in front of the world.”

Adding to the uniqueness of her win, Melham was racing against her husband, Ben Melham, who had the ride on Smokin’ Romans and finished 14th. It was the first time spouses had raced against each other in the Melbourne Cup.

“I’ve had an amazing year. Got married, had some really great days on the track, but nothing ever, ever compares to this feeling right now I’m feeling,” Jamie Melham said.

“I said, ‘I rode it how you told me, too’. We don’t normally talk racing much, but we went through this race about 10-15 times yesterday, and that’s exactly what I wanted to happen,” she said.

Formerly Jamie Kah, the champion jockey also noted the influence of her grandfather, who passed away last week and only got to see her and Half Yours win the first half of their 2025 cup double.

“I have to mention my grandpa,” Melham told Nine post race.

“He died 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 open.”

McNeil pleaded guilty to careless riding at the 2500-metre mark after his mount, Valiant King, collided with Presage Nocturne and Vauban as the trio jostled for position going down the straight for the first time.

The suspension was heavier than normal under rules increasing penalties for jockeys who cause interference in feature races.

Shinn, who rode Vauban into sixth, was due to speak to stewards about his role in causing the interference, but the inquiry was adjourned after Shinn fell from She’s Got Pizzazz in race 9 and was taken to hospital with a fractured leg.

A separate inquiry into Shinn’s race 9 fall was adjourned.

Al Riffa joined a long line of UK arrivals to not live up to the hype with in-form jockey Mark Zahra saying the wide draw and the weight of 59 kilograms made it too hard for his mount.

French horse Presage Nocturne ran a disappointing 19th after firming in the market late.

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