HORSE RACING
By LIAM DURKIN
THE quality of Moe Racing Club’s track is now even clearer.
This year’s Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jamie Melham was riding winners at Moe a little more than 12 months ago.
On the same day Moe Racing Club opened the top storey of its new race day building in August last year, Melham (then Jamie Kah) rode two of the first three winners at the club’s members day meeting.
Melham has been rated the world’s best female jockey since 2020, and this year became the first female to win the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double when five-year-old gelding Half Yours saluted.
She was also only the second female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, 10 years after Michelle Payne rode to immortality on board Prince Of Penzance.
Prince Of Penzance made a special appearance at Moe Racing Club last September, along with the very Melbourne Cup trophy presented at Flemington.
Renowned race caller, Greg Miles travelled with the cup to Moe, regaling attendees with stories from his career.
He pointed to legendary race caller and Moe’s own Bill Collins as one of his idols. Collins’ legacy has lived on at Moe Racing Club through the naming of the Bill Collins Bar in the main function room.
“I loved coming here,” Miles said of Moe where he called during his career.
The Melbourne Cup also visited Latrobe Valley Racing Club, who had a huge win when charity partner Traralgon Apex won $50,000.
The Melbourne Cup tour organisers had committed that amount to the community group who drew the winning barrier.
Latrobe Valley has a busy month, with it’s two meetings coming at either ends of the calendar. The Traralgon Cup is on at the end of this month (Sunday, November 30), while the club’s Derby Day took place on Saturday, November 1.
Sale-based trainer Angela Bence, who grew up in Traralgon, had a winner in Race 4 when Cudmore Street got up, ridden by fellow Traralgon identity Koby Jennings.
The local connections to the Melbourne Cup don’t stop in the Latrobe Valley.
In an incredible coincidence, Rosedale horse Patrobas won the 1915 Melbourne Cup carrying the same saddle cloth Prince Of Penzance had a century later. Patrobas was also the first horse owned by a woman to win the prestigious race.
A more incredible story is the actual early history of the Melbourne Cup, which sees it unintentionally crossover with the whereabouts of Burke and Wills and Ned Kelly.
For those interested in stories lost over time, it is well worth a listen on the Sports Bizarre Podcast, told by Titus O’Reily to Mick Molloy.
