‘I got a bit excited’: The moment Jamie Kah’s Cup dream was dashed

Star jockey Jamie Kah admitted she dared to dream of a famous Melbourne Cup victory before her horse, Okita Soushi, was mowed down by rank outsider Knight’s Choice in a thrilling boilover at Flemington.

Sheila Laxon became the first woman to train two Melbourne Cup winners, partnering with co-trainer and husband John Symons to deliver the upset win 23 years after training New Zealand mare Ethereal to victory in the 2001 race.

Knight’s Choice defeated Japanese-trained Warp Speed in a photo finish, with Kah’s ride finishing third.

Kah, who won the VRC Derby on Saturday, hit the front with 200 metres to go. Vision from her helmet-cam showed a glimpse of the finishing post with nothing but grass ahead, before the two horses rushed past. “[I] couldn’t have asked for anything more from the horse,” she said afterwards.

“[He] got me a bit excited at the 200. I thought he was going to hang on but he’s just a genuine one-pace horse.”

Okita Soushi’s trainer, Ciaron Maher, was stoic.

“For a fleeting moment there when he kicked to the front I thought [we were a chance] but ...”

Jamie Kah’s ride finished third in the Cup.Credit: Getty Images

This edition of the Cup featured a record four female jockeys — Kah, Winona Costin, Britain’s Hollie Doyle and Sydney-based Rachel King — nine years after Michelle Payne’s breakthrough win on Prince of Penzance. Doyle finished 15th on Sea King, Costin 20th on Positivity, and King 21st on The Map.

Part-time singer Robbie Dolan was the jockey aboard Knight’s Choice, and the former contestant on TV talent show, The Voice, expressed disbelief after his win.

“Pinch me, I’m dreaming,” he told Channel Nine after riding the five-year-old gelding to victory.

It was a tough result for punters with Zardozi completing an unlikely first four.

Knight’s Choice was paying $63.50, the Cup trifecta paid $22,576.80, while the first four paid $728,015.70.

The favourite, Buckaroo, finished ninth after being trapped three wide for most of the run. Jockey Joao Moreira started his run from the back with 600 metres to go and could not sustain his charge.

“The distance probably just stretched him too much and the last little bit, he started getting tired,” Moreira said.

It followed a frustrating second place for the same trainer, connections and jockey on Soulcombe, in last year’s race, when the horse was blocked for a run in the straight and could not catch Without A Fight.

Japanese jockey Akira Sugawara, who rode the runner-up, said he had planned to go to the front but was slow out of the barriers and settled for plan B.

“We had watched many Melbourne Cups in the past so I thought we could come from the back and I got him into a real rhythm and went through the field and it was a really good run,” Sugawara said.

Trainer Noboru Takagi thought for a second his horse had pipped the winner on the post.

“I’m really gutted by the small margin,” Takagi said. “At the same time, we did not think it was unlucky: the winning horse was the better horse on the day.”

Warp Speed is pipped at the post by Knight’s Choice. Credit: AP

Highly rated international runner Vauban again failed to fire, finishing 11th, while his Willie Mullins-trained stablemate, Absurde, finished fifth.

Mullins suggested Absurde might return for a third attempt at the Cup next year, but said it was unlikely that Vauban would visit Australia again.

“Vauban doesn’t seem to like the track. He just doesn’t fire down here. From halfway, the jockey [William Buick] said he wasn’t carrying him and that is not like the Vauban that runs at home. It’s disappointing and it looks like he wouldn’t be back,” Mullins said. “I have no excuses.”

The day belonged to Dolan who came to Australia from Ireland eight years ago, and was a contestant on The Voice in 2022.

“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him [Knight’s Choice] to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track, and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.

He became emotional when reminded about his journey towards winning Australia’s greatest race.

“I can’t put it into words. It is the biggest race in the world. I have my family here and my partner, Christine, our little baby Maisy, and my dad flew over from Ireland, and now you have me in tears.”

Based in New Zealand when she became the first woman to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double with Ethereal back in 2001, Laxon now lives in Queensland with Symons.

The pair met at Macedon Lodge 25 years ago, with both Ethereal and Knight’s Choice preparing for the Cup there nearly a quarter of a century apart.

“We’ve had probably a pretty tough 15 years, but to come back and keep going, and to be able to come back at our age, and we’ve got a team of 28 horses. I bought that horse at the Magic Millions for $85,000, and we’ve just upstaged a world full of money,” Symons told Racing.com.

“Sheila’s a superstar. We’ve gelled from day one...to be able to do this is a dream come true. We thought it would probably slip through our fingers, but to be able to come back and do this, it’s just fantastic.”

After Knight’s Choice’s strong winter in Queensland, including group placings in the Q22 and Tatt’s Cup, the horse finished 14th of 18th in the Caulfield Cup and then sixth in the Bendigo Cup.

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