Mark Zahra goes back-to-back in Melbourne Cup after making right call to ride Without A Fight

Winning a Melbourne Cup is about making the right decisions and Mark Zahra is on a hot streak after claiming back-to-back triumphs.

Mark Zahra celebrates as he returns to the mounting yard after winning the Melbourne Cup aboard Without A Fight. Picture: Michael Klein

Decisions.

They’re everything in a Melbourne Cup.

Thousands of individual decisions led to Mark Zahra’s second successive victory salute in a Melbourne Cup.

From owner Sheikh Mohammad Obaid Al Maktoum’s decision to leave the horse in Australia with trainers Anthony and Sam Freedman after last year’s Melbourne Cup to targeting the great race after a successful Brisbane winter campaign.

• ‘An extraordinary ride’: Without A Fight wins the Melbourne Cup

Zahra’s chain of correct choices started on Cox Plate night when he got off last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip after riding him into fifth in The Valley’s weight-for-age championship.

The 41-year-old had a great sample from which to decide after riding Without A Fight to victory in the Caulfield Cup a week earlier.

Zahra and Gold Trip had left Without A Fight more than 20 lengths in their wake in the 2022 Melbourne Cup, which was run in wet conditions.

But the early stages of El Nino produced a dry weather forecast for the 10 days leading up to the Melbourne Cup, which convinced Zahra and those advising him the firm-tracker was the right ride.

Mark Zahra kisses the Melbourne Cup. Picture: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Gold Trip’s connections didn’t muck around, immediately securing James McDonald to ride their star once Zahra abdicated the saddle.

Zahra’s second Melbourne Cup win made it two years in a row where the jockey zigged right and zagged correctly in the heat of a Melbourne Cup run in testing conditions.

Every right choice created another correct decision, which opened another opportunity for Zahra to improve Without A Fight’s position from the 800m until the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained import charged into history ahead of Chris Waller’s game pair Soulcombe and Sheraz.

• What the jockeys said after the Melbourne Cup

Zahra and his riding cohort had more trouble getting out of the oppressive Flemington enclosure to mount their respective horses.

Think of the most crowded pub in which you’ve ever been.

Then turn the heating up to the highest level.

Mark Zahra made the right call to ride Without A Fight in the Melbourne Cup. Picture: AFP

That’s how it was for the jockeys, many of whom had wasted and forsaken all but water in a bid to make the weights for their respective bids for Melbourne Cup glory.

Other sports would be amazed with the conditions in which racing’s coaches, the trainers, issued their final instructions to the already nervous riders.

The jockeys had already stood out in the mounting yard heat as part of the pre-race entertainment, many would have been excused for not wanting to be there.

Before they knew it, the gates had opened and the serious stuff was on.

Three minutes and 18 seconds later, it was all over.

Zahra’s decision had paid a $220,000 dividend for him but racing lost something in the Melbourne Cup.

Champion jockey Damien Oliver’s last Melbourne Cup finished in disappointing fashion when his mount Alenquer finished 21st, more than 33 lengths for the winner.

Not the way the riding legend deserved to end his journey with the Melbourne Cup, which included three famous victories in the great race.

But “Ollie” is happy with his decision.

Originally published as Mark Zahra goes back-to-back in Melbourne Cup after making right call to ride Without A Fight