Team Williams give Katelyn Mallyon good vibes with Assign as she steps up for her first Melbourne Cup ride

KATELYN Mallyon hopes to repay the faith of Team Williams with another Melbourne Cup when she lines-up for her first ride in the great race on Assign at Flemington on Tuesday.

TUESDAY morning, Flemington, somewhere near the racetrack, spring’s theatre of dreams.

Walking, earphones in, listening to Drake, will be Katelyn Mallyon.

It’s the 22-year-old’s race-day routine, getting pumped.

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A few hours later she’ll ride in her first Melbourne Cup.

The opening race on Cup day is at 10.40am, but Mallyon isn’t required until race three, on Morning Mix. Just like her walking song compilation, her own morning mix.

It’s a Lloyd Williams horse. She’s riding for Lloyd in the Cup too, on Assign.

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Mallyon thinks it’s funny her first Cup ride is called Assign. She isn’t superstitious, but does see signs in things.

She’s not silly about it, doesn’t go looking for them or need them. But she is happy to accept any positivity the world around her can provide.

“It’s a little bit of a funny thing me and one of my best mates had going, that whatever I was doing there would be a sign telling me whether it was a good or bad idea,” Mallyon told the Herald Sun this week, on the afternoon she moved house, from Caulfield back to Flemington.

“My biggest one is seeing 11:11 on the clock. It means so much to me and my family, it was when my Pa passed away. I don’t wait for it but if it pops up we say ‘Hi’ to him, and he brings me lots of luck. That’s where all the signs stuff has come from.

Katelyn Mallyon has formed a good association with Assign. Picture: Alex Coppel

“If every light is green, it’s my day, that’s how I think of it.

“I live two seconds away from Flemington, so not too many red or green lights, so I doubt there are going to be any signs on Cup Day. But it’s funny the horse I am riding in the Cup is called Assign.”

If Mallyon was truly in to signs, she wouldn’t be riding.

Daughter of a jockey turned trainer, sister of jockeys, granddaughter of a three-time Caulfield Cup-winning hoop, Mallyon was born into it. She was a champion apprentice too, winning the Victorian apprentices’ title in 2012.

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But in May that same year she had a race fall, a bad one. She suffered a fractured spine, spleen damage, a broken cheekbone and was put in a coma for four days.

There’s a sign for you.

But when she regained consciousness, nearly the first question out of her mouth was about her next ride. Guess the fact she was OK, no permanent damage, was a sign to keep going.

“When I came out of my coma and told mum I was definitely riding, because mum and dad both told me that I didn’t have to keep going,” Mallyon said.

“I said I was definitely coming back. I had so much more to achieve.”

Katelyn Mallyon hopes to add a Melbourne Cup to go with her pop Mick Mallyon’s three Caulfield Cup wins. Picture: Colleen Petch.

She won the apprentices’ title again in 2014, aided by the support of her racing family, her friends, and trainers and owner who were happy to continue to back her in.

The Williams team has been one of those supporters.

If you want to win the Melbourne Cup, Lloyd Williams is a good man to have in your corner. He’s won the Cup four times, twice in the past decade, and he likes the way Mallyon rides stayers.

“I always did a bit of riding for him when I was an apprentice,” Mallyon said. “I rode Fawkner and won on him (on a heavy track at Flemington in 2012).

“He has really supported me, I had good luck for him winning the Golden Mile (on Nevis at Bendigo in March) and he trusts me to ride his European stayers.”

It’s an interesting relationship she has with the Williams camp.

Katelyn Mallyon shares a laugh with Nick Williams at Bendigo this week. Picture: Colleen Petch

She doesn’t ride the horses in work, and has never even been to “horse heaven”, otherwise known as Macedon Lodge, where team Williams prepare all their runners.

But their faith in her stays strong. She rode for Williams in the Bendigo Cup this week, finishing second on Our Century.

She has been on Assign twice, his last two starts, and calls him a “real gentleman”. They won together at their last start, the Herbert Power at Caulfield on October 8.

But they haven’t seen each other since, and won’t meet again until she is legged up on to the six-year-old son of Montjeu in the mounting yard on Tuesday.

By then, Mallyon, who will have listened to Drake, gone for her walk, ridden twice and been introduced to the masses, alongside her rivals, will really know she’s in the Melbourne Cup.

She’s felt the “vibe” on Cup Day before, riding in earlier races.

But on Tuesday, while plenty of her peers will be looking on enviously, she will be right among it, and she can’t wait.

“There are so many people there, and they are calling your name over the fence, and it makes you feel so good,” she said. “This is why we do it, we love the horses and we love racing and see the whole of Australia and Melbourne get behind you, it’s so uplifting.

“I’m so excited about it.”

Wlliams has high hopes

WITH the enthusiasm of a ­tornado chaser, Lloyd Williams is in pursuit of his fifth Melbourne Cup and has four chances in Tuesday’s race.

He has three — Assign, ­Almandin and Gallante — prepared at Mt Macedon by his trainer, Robert Hickmott.

Williams and his son Nick were trackside at Werribee on Friday to watch their other hope, Bondi Beach, prepared by leading Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien.

Bondi Beach ran 16th in last year’s Melbourne Cup and then returned to Ireland, where he had two wins and two thirds from four starts.

“He’s matured a bit from last year and the plan was to bring him back,” Williams said. “The vibe with him (in quarantine) is they are happy with him.”

Williams, 76, would not comment on his top fancy.

“When you get to this race — I’ve been doing it for 50 years — I’m just hoping. I’m looking up there to the ­Almighty and hoping he might shine down on me,” he said.

Williams has won with Just A Dash (1981), What A Nuisance (1985), Efficient (2007) and Green Moon (2012).

Originally published as Team Williams give Katelyn Mallyon good vibes with Assign as she steps up for her first Melbourne Cup ride