Record number of female jockeys booked for Melbourne Cup; Via Sistina ruled out

Next Tuesday for the first time in Melbourne Cup history five female jockeys could ride in Australia’s most famous race after group 1 winner Nikita Beriman was booked to ride Mission Of Love for trailblazing Cup winning trainer Shiela Laxon and co-trainer John Symons.

Beriman joins Jamie Kah, Rachel King and Winona Costin with mounts in the big race while UK rider Hollie Doyle has been booked to ride Bendigo Cup winner Sea King in the race. Laxon was excited about pairing her mare with Beriman. “She’s fearless,” Laxon told The Age.

Rachel King at the Rosehill racecourse. She will ride The Map in the Melbourne Cup. Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

Laxon, who became the first female trainer to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double when Ethereal won both races in 2001, said she built a great relationship with Beriman when they worked together in Seymour.

It had slipped her memory that she had told Beriman during that period that if she ever had a Melbourne Cup runner again she would book the jockey. But it had not elapsed Beriman’s mind who asked the trainers if she could ride Caloundra Cup winner Mission Of Love, who carries 50 kilograms in the race.

It’s too big a race however for emotion to take over with Laxon and Symons making a carefully considered decision that Beriman was the best hoop to steer the mare lifting the number of female jockeys in the 2024 edition above the three – Kah, King and Doyle – who rode in the race in 2023.

Kah was briefly without a Cup ride on Saturday when her mount Point King was announced as a non-starter before she landed the ride on the Ciaron Maher-trained Okita Soushi.

She also played the jockey agent role when she organised for King, the star Sydney hoop riding at The Breeders Cup on the weekend, to steer The Map in the race.

“I’m really happy for [the trainers] they could get Rachel on board. I had a bit to do with that. I was harassing Rachel to make sure she’d ride her for them,” Kah said. “I was a bit of a jockey manager which was a bit weird.”

Winona Costin is booked to ride the Andrew Forsman-trained Positivity in the Melbourne Cup. Costin finished fourth in the 2023 Caulfield Cup on Bois D’Argent.

Horse trainer Aidan O’Brien was upset that is horse Jan Brueghel was withdrawn from the Melbourne Cup on the advice of Racing Victoria stewardsCredit: Getty Images

Michelle Payne remains the only female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup after she steered Prince of Penzance to victory in 2015. Maree Lyndon was the first female to ride in the Melbourne Cup when she rode Argonaut Style in 1987.

Jockeys are being booked as the Cup field takes shape with UK horse Sea King to start in the race after a dominant win in the Bendigo Cup on Wednesday providing he passes the compulsory CT scans at Werribee.

Declan Bates rode the six-year-old who is being prepared at Werribee to victory after sweeping the field at the turn. His trainer Harry Eustace, who also prepared Docklands to run fifth in the Cox Plate, said the horse can stay having beaten home Geelong Cup winner Onesmoothoperator in the Ebor Handicap at York in August.

Earlier Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien had hit out at Racing Victoria stewards over their decision not to allow Jan Brueghel to run in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, as the connections of another pre-post favourite Via Sistina decided not to run the Cox Plate winner in the race.

O’Brien said it was “ridiculous” that stewards ignored those responsible for the horse when they ruled the horse out on Tuesday, a week before the $8 million race.

Jan Brueghel doing trackwork, ridden by Dean Gallagher, at Werribee earlier this month.Credit: Getty Images

A CT scan conducted on Jan Brueghel at Werribee on Saturday morning was the catalyst for the contentious decision after it revealed a weakness in a lower leg which stewards said would increase the risk of injury if the horse was to run in the Cup.

But O’Brien, who trains predominantly for Coolmore and is in the United States ahead of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, said he was confident Jan Brueghel was ready to perform well in the Cup.

“It was unlucky for us, lucky for them [the other Cup runners],” the trainer said in comments reported by Racing Post.

“He was a group 1 horse in a handicap with 8st 7lb (54 kilograms) and Ryan Moore riding him. And he was getting better every week, and he only ever won by very little. So that’s the way it is.”

O’Brien compared the veterinary checks unfavourably to those in place at the Breeders’ Cup and made a clear and barbed dig at the Australian authorities’ use of technology in the process.

He added: “In this part of the world, it’s horsemen who decide. There are other parts of the world where we have had a horse, where the horse trots in front of a phone. The phone videos the trot and the phone tells you whether he is sound or not.”

Racing Victoria’s integrity manager Jamie Stier told SEN the decision of a panel of vets was based on the standing CT scans taken at Werribee Equine Centre on Saturday, about five weeks after an MRI scan cleared the horse to travel from Ireland.

“Thankfully we have had three incident-free Melbourne Cups since the introduction of protocols,” Stier said. “We have to do whatever we can to protect the Melbourne Cup.”

If the Cox Plate-winning combination of Via Sistina and jockey James McDonald won’t saddle up together for the Melbourne Cup.Credit: Eddie Jim

“We acknowledge it is challenging, and we acknowledge that not everyone agrees with the protocols as they are.”

To be a final acceptor for the Melbourne Cup, horses must undergo a CT scan of their distal limbs between Caulfield Cup Day and the Thursday before the Melbourne Cup, either in Victoria or NSW using the standing CT equipment.

All international horses travelling via Werribee’s International Horse Centre must have a CT scan of their distal limbs before each start in Australia. It means Japanese visitor Warp Speed had an MRI before leaving Japan then CT scans before being cleared to run in the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup.

As the debate about Jan Brueghel’s withdrawal continued on Wednesday, connections of Cox Plate-winning mare Via Sistina announced they would not run her in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.

The star seven-year-old set a track record to win the Cox Plate by eight lengths; a performance that saw her ranked the No.1 horse in the world.

Instead of running in the Cup, she will contest the group 1, 2000-metre Champions Stakes on the final day of the Flemington carnival on Saturday week.

Yulong Investments managing director Vin Cox told RSN the mare’s connections met with her trainer Chris Waller to make the decision.

“We just think the Melbourne Cup was never really on the radar, albeit she absolutely bolted in the Cox Plate and looked super impressive ... [it was] an afterthought, the Melbourne Cup probably doesn’t add up,” Cox said.

Via Sistina will return to stables on Wednesday to prepare for the Champions Stakes. The mare will then have a spell rather than head to Hong Kong this year for further racing.

Waller said on Tuesday that she had pulled up well from the Cox Plate win, but they would weigh up 100 factors before making the decision.

The decision leaves champion jockey James McDonald without a ride in Tuesday’s race.

Cup rides are scarce for many experienced jockeys in 2024 as the top weight Vauban has just 55.5 kilograms, making competition fierce for those who aren’t able to ride at low weights.

Mark Zahra will chase a third consecutive Cup win on Circle of Fire, Damien Lane is on Kovalica, Joao Moreira is on Buckaroo and Kah on Okita Soushi.

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