Melbourne Cup 2025: Half Yours salutes as Jamie Melham becomes second female to win Australia’s biggest race

Trailblazing jockey Jamie Melham has become just the second female hoop in history to win the Group 1 $10 million Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) aboard Half Yours.

The $9 former favourite was given a dream ride by Melham, who picked her way through the pack and produced the horse to hit the front inside the final 200m before racing to an emphatic success.

Melham’s win came a decade after Michelle Payne’s breakthrough win on Prince of Penzance in 2015.

“What just happened?! Oh my god!” Melham said immediately after the line.

“This is what we do it for. This is why we get up out of bed every morning at 4am, work our a…s off for the last 15 years I’ve been in this industry.

“It’s not all glorious and perfect as people can see sometimes.

“I’ve had an amazing year. Got married, had some really great days on the track, but nothing ever, ever compares to this feeling right now.”

Goodie Two Shoes came second and Middle Earth was third.

River of Stars was fourth, while Buckaroo finished last.

In the final 300m, Melham squirmed her way between the flagging Land Legend ($61) and Royal Supremacy ($31) to obtain clear air and the chestnut sprinted sharply to race to the front.

With bottomless stamina, Half Yours roared up the Flemington running to record an emphatic three-length success.

Col McKenna, a prominent owner who was one of the hoop’s greatest supporters before passing a year ago, was credited for the divine passage alongside Melham’s recently deceased grandfather.

“I’ve got Col up there (in heaven), who bred this horse, did an incredible job with him,” Melham said.

“My grandpa, he died last week, the last thing he watched was the Caulfield Cup.

“He’s up there opening those gaps for me because I needed the gaps opened then.

“My mum and dad are here; they’ve put up with all my s..t for the last 15 years.

“My beautiful husband (Ben Melham, who rode Smokin’ Romans), I said, ‘I rode it how you told me to’.

“We don’t normally talk racing much, but we went through this race about 10-15 times yesterday and that’s exactly what I wanted to happen.”

Plenty of Melham’s glory, which has seen her named the world’s leading female jockey on multiple occasions, has come in unison with Tony and Calvin McEvoy, with both rider and winning co-trainers hailing from South Australia.

“They’ve been there for me since I was a 15-year-old kid and continue, to this day, to be there,” Melham said.

“They deserve this so much. I’ve just won the Melbourne Cup!”

The five-year-old, who was sold this time last year for $305,000, has now banked well over $8 million for father-son training combination.

“What a joy. This is our great race and it’s so special to win it,” Tony McEvoy said.

“Incredible moment. From the days we grew up, the Melbourne Cup was everything.

“It’s been a great race for the McEvoy family, Kerrin winning it three times, my brother Phillip owned a horse that ran second in it, and now for us to be able to win it, it’s just amazing.”

Soon after, Melham rushed into the arms of Payne, who helped blaze the trail for successful female Melbourne Cup jockeys a decade ago.

“The times are changing and it’s just unbelievable,” Payne said.

The two agreed that nothing describes the feeling of winning Australia’s greatest race, with Melham even saying that she “tried to copy the ride” from 2015.

“I wanted to ride him as quiet as I could and at the 400m, I couldn’t go any quieter,” Melham said.

“You grow up thinking, ‘I want to ride in the Melbourne Cup, that would be cool’.

“I thought about it this week a bit (winning), but you don’t think it’s actually going to happen, and it just happened. What the hell?”

“That’s why I do it. What sort of job can you be with your favourite animal in the world 24/7, every day of the week?

“I just wanted to jump off that horse and not talk to anyone and just hug the horse.”