Intense battle facing Melbourne Cup golden girl Jamie Kah

Chris Waller has paid Jamie Kah an enormous compliment as she fights to rediscover her best in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.

Hall Of Fame trainer Chris Waller has paid South Australia’s Jamie Kah the ultimate compliment as she strives to win her first Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.

Ahead of the $8.4 million race where Kah will ride More Felons for Waller, he told the Sunday Mail that Kah, 27, had “an amazing gift with horses”.

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“We took (More Felons) to Flemington on Thursday and Jamie had her first feel of the horse,” Waller said, as reported by Punters+.

“It’s great to get the services of Jamie. She has an amazing gift with horses, they relax so well for her, and they respond to her.

“Looking ahead to a two-mile (3200m) race they are important factors when selecting a jockey for a horse.

Jamie Kah was the golden girl of Australian racing right from the start. Photos: Instagram and Scott Barbour via Getty Images.

“It’s amazing what Jamie’s achieved during her career and we’re looking forward to Tuesday’s race. What she’s been through in the last 12 months is unbelievable, she’s a real athlete, she’s well prepared and she’s a great thinker, a great horse person.

“I think we’ve got one of the world’s best riding on Tuesday.”

If successful, Kah would become only the second female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup after Michelle Payne, who won on $101 chance Prince Of Penzance in 2015.

But a win would make her achievement all the sweeter given Kah was fighting for her life only eight months ago after a shocking race fall, ironically at Flemington.

Kah, who scored a confidence-building double at Flemington on Derby Day, said of riding in another Melbourne Cup: “I’m very excited to ride (More Felons) in the Cup.

“It’s a very, very special race for Australia and I’m happy to be on him, I know he’ll run the trip, we just have to get him in a good spot.”

Jamie Kah after winning Race 4 on Spacewalk at Derby Day on November 04, 2023. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)

Kah, who grew up in the Adelaide Hills but now lives on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, finished an unlucky third in the 2020 Melbourne Cup on Prince Of Arran.

The nine-time Group 1 winner missed the 2021 Cup and ran seventh last year on Smokin’ Romans.

“Riding in the Melbourne Cup is indescribable, how amazing it feels to be out there,” Kah said. “To win the Melbourne Cup would be amazing, you got to be in it to win it and I’m in with a good chance.”

It has been the toughest year of champion jockey Kah’s career in the saddle after she sustained a serious brain injury after a shocking fall in March.

It kept her on the sidelines for five months and she eventually returned to race riding in August.

Kah has struggled to recapture her elite form since returning from injury but has found plenty of allies as she strives to get back to the pinnacle of racing.

Kah knows she has a huge opportunity on Tuesday. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Michelle Payne said: “I think she’s just going through the motions of whatever she’s getting, the rides she’s getting (and) doing her best.

“Obviously it’s very hard coming back from an injury like that but I think that she’s not panicking and you can’t.

“She’s not getting the calibre of horses that she was, but I think she’s still riding as good as ever.

“If I had a horse good enough for her to ride I wouldn’t have any hesitations in putting her on. It’s a game where you need the luck to be going your way and I always say it’s like a big circle, it keeps coming back around.

“People that have ability are going great now and then it’ll come around and she’ll be flying again. She’s done a remarkable job to come back from her injury like she did and she’ll get back there.”

Kah’s form slump coincides with her facing a misconduct charge over her part in a “white powder” controversy, which will be heard over two days on November 13 and 14.

In August, her barrister told the Victorian Racing Tribunal that Kah intended to plead not guilty.

It is alleged Kah was filmed by a friend, registered stablehand Ruby McIntyre, appearing to arrange a white substance into three lines with an identification card during a gathering at her home on June 17-18.

Kah’s parents, John and Karen, represented Australia as Winter Olympians in short-track speed skating.

Devoted to horses growing up in South Australia, Kah started her equestrian career working for pocket money in racing stables before becoming an apprentice jockey at the age of 14.

It’s genuinely so nice seeing Jamie Kah smiling and happy again. Super ride by her on Cause for Concern. Great win! #DerbyDay

— AndrewPH (@AndrewPHopkins5) November 4, 2023

She had her first race ride at Streaky Bay on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula in March, 2012. She rode her first winner, Magic Tigress, at Clare on April 7, 2012.

She has now ridden more than 1200 winners with career prizemoney of more than $71 million, of which she has received a 5 per cent share.

In 2021, Kah became the first person - male or female - to win 100 metropolitan races in a season in Victoria.

However, in the same year she hit the headlines for the wrong reasons when, in the middle of an intense Victorian lockdown, Kah was found to have hosted a rogue gathering at an Airbnb rental, breaching the state’s strict Covid rules.

Kah was suspended from riding for three months, which Kah said “was the worst time of my life, easily”.

“I’ve worked so hard to make this image of myself,” she said in an interview in September last year.

Jamie Kah takes the win on Cause of Concern on Saturday. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)

“I just wanted to be the best. I wanted to please everyone.

“And I didn’t want people to hate me. I used to get really upset with people not liking me. And when that happened, I thought I’d let down so many people in the world and that just killed me. I was not in a good place for a while.”

Waller said More Felons, a $34 chance in the Melbourne Cup, had “continued to do well while in quarantine”.

“His run in the Geelong Cup (5th) appears to have brought him along nicely,” he said. “The horse made up good ground, sustained a long run which is a good quality looking ahead to Flemington.

“I was certainly happy with his performance at Geelong. I believe he’ll relish stepping out to two miles (3200m) on Tuesday.”

Two other female jockeys will compete in the Cup.

Champion British rider Hollie Doyle is aboard Future History, while Rachel King takes the ride on the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Military Mission.