After a luckless run in the Caulfield Cup, punters – led by Australia’s richest man Kerry Packer – backed her in to start a $7 favourite.

Munce and the Kiwi mare didn’t disappoint and despite tomorrow’s race marking the 20-year annivserary of that win, it’s a day the champion jockey will never forget.

“I can remember everything from waking up in the morning to being close to unconscious at 3 o’clock the next morning. Put it this way, it was a long 18 hours,” Munce recalls.

The jockey later celebrated with his wife Cathy, who watched the race in Sydney.

“Our second little one, Caitlyn, was only six months old, so Cathy was back home with her and (son) Corey. They had a champagne lunch at home with a few friends,” Munce said.

“Once I won the race, we rushed around frantically and got her on the first available plane to Melbourne.

“Originally, I wasn’t even staying. I was coming home.

“But after you win a Melbourne Cup everything is put on for you. They had a car waiting to take me back to the casino.”

The Melbourne Cup was the second leg of a quartet that later made Munce a member of the elite Grand Slam-winning jockeys, a club of just seven to have won the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Golden Slipper.

Munce, who is now a successful trainer at Eagle Farm, doesn’t hesitate in putting it right at the top of his achievements in racing.

“How do you describe it? No.1 it’s a relief, you’ve done it, it’s just a great thrill. It’s an enormous achievement and no one can ever take that away from you,” he said.

“I will die having won a Melbourne Cup.

“There’s been thousands of great riders who weren’t able to win one. To be a part of history is great.”

The Cup capped a great few months for Munce, who had won the Golden Slipper earlier in the year on Prowl.

“It’s funny. Leading into the Slipper, I’d had an awful run of outs,” he said.

“I think I’d had 60 or 65 rides without riding a winner in town. I’d ridden a few winners at the provincials, but I couldn’t ride a winner in town.

“I was having an awful run. On the Saturday before when (trainer) Clarry (Conners) asked me to ride Prowl I was happy to do so and that broke the drought.

“I won the Golden Slipper and it kept going from there.”

Munce’s road to Melbourne Cup glory dated back to January of that year.

“It was the Auckland Cup and I had been asked to ride Aerosmith in that race. After I’d accepted the ride on Aerosmith, Brian Jenkins offered me the ride on Jezabeel,” Munce said.

“Well what happens? I hit the front a furlong out and here comes Jezabeel down the outside and blows me out.”

The loss though was worth it.

Come August of that year, Jenkins phoned Munce again, wanting to book him for the Melbourne Cup.

Having seen her up close in Auckland, Munce jumped at the chance.

“The first day I rode her (in the Caulfield Stakes) … she was a hot filly. She was a Zabeel, so was quite hot, a bit stirry and she raced a bit that way,” Munce said,

“The more racing she got, the better she settled down and come raceday she was a real professional.”

The Melbourne Cup dream hit a speed hump in a roughhouse Caulfield Cup, where Munce and Jezabeel were almost put through the rail when European jockey Ray Cochrane shifted in abruptly on the eventual winner Taufan’s Melody.

“It was disappointing. I’d had a good run, I was closer in the run than I expected and everything was beginning to unfold nicely. I thought I was going to kick through and win the race,” Munce said.

“Brian was quite angry. He was filthy. They were talking about legal action and everything. I was disappointed too, but you can only do so much.

“The upside was that I knew I was on the right horse after Caulfield. She just kept improving.”

Munce had only had one ride in the Melbourne Cup before 1998, running 11th on Aquidity in 1992.

Even though Jezabeel drew 16, the race panned out perfectly, getting into a nice position near the speed, with the mare relaxing beautifully.

All looked good until Glen Boss, a fellow Queenslander, loomed large on the Mackinnon Stakes winner Champagne.

“I remember that vividly. When I got to the front I thought ‘geez, I hope I haven’t gone too early’. I sensed Champagne coming up on my outside,” Munce said.

“I was still riding for my life. It was my second ride in a Melbourne Cup and I was just happy to run second.

“It wasn’t until the last 100m, I could feel my mare was still sustaining her gallop and I could sense Champagne weakening on her run.

“Jezabeel and myself, I think we took another gasp of air and we fought even harder. It was tooth and nail right through the line.

“I was still a bit unsure and Bossy would have been a bit gutted at the time. I hadn’t had that many rides at Flemington, so I didn’t know the angles that well. I felt that I’d won, but I wasn’t getting carried away until my number came up.”

Munce had a few more rides in the great race over the years, with his best result being third on Maybe Better to the Japanese duo Delta Blues and Pop Rock in 2006.

Jezabeel never raced again, but Munce saw her some time later at Sir Patrick Hogan’s Cambridge Stud and noted how she had let down into a beautiful broodmare.

The two will always share a special bond, having scaled the biggest mountain in Australian racing and 20 years on, their moment together is as vivid as ever.

“It’s a great club to be part of. The Melbourne Cup is iconic, it’s history. To go down in racing history was a terrific thrill,” Munce said.

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