Melham left sweating as Melbourne Cup field reshuffled
Shayne Hope |
Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jamie Melham faces a nervous wait to find out whether she’ll have the chance to defend her crown in the race that stops a nation.
Melham is on stand-by to ride long-shot Future History, but the Gregory Hickman-trained import sits 25th on the order of entry for Tuesday’s $10.2 million feature.
Future History needs another rival to be withdrawn in order to earn a place in the 24-horse field, after Saint George was ruled out by vets on Thursday and connections of The Euphrates reportedly opted against pushing on to the race.
Bendigo Cup winner So You Are occupies the 24th and final slot, having been handed a 1kg penalty after Wednesday’s Group 3 triumph. The son of So You Think has been re-handicapped three times in the build-up and is now set to carry 54kg on Tuesday.
The Cup field will be finalised on Saturday night, with the barrier draw to take place at Flemington after the last race on the Derby Day card.
Melham claimed a historic Melbourne-Caulfield cups double aboard Half Yours last year, becoming the second female jockey behind Michelle Payne to win Australia’s most famous race.
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained stayer won’t defend his Melbourne Cup title, having been sent for a spell after a fall in this month’s Caulfield Cup.
That incident had tragic consequences when Half Yours brought down rival Ohope Wins, who was euthanised on-course as a result of an injury.
Melham’s Cup options this year have been limited by multiple lightweight options missing the cut, and she won’t ride on Derby Day after she was unable to overturn a careless riding suspension.
Leading trainer Ciaron Maher remains on track to saddle a record number of runners in the Cup field, despite vets ruling out Saint George, who was deemed “at heightened risk of injury”.
The Caulfield Cup runner-up, who was a slashing fifth in the Cox Plate last Saturday, will be sent for a spell and won’t race again this spring after failing mandatory pre-race scans.
Saint George passed the initial trot-up on Thursday about an hour before scan results were made known to connections.
Maher still has seven runners in the top 22 on the order of entry, including $6 favourite and Geelong Cup winner Point Of Law.
Maher also has Juja Kibo, Mr Monaco, Shockletz, Middle Earth, Royal Supremacy and Zahrann in contention.
Robert Hickmott had a record six runners for seven-time winning owner Lloyd Williams in the 2013 Cup, which was won by the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente.
Two-time Cup-winning trainer Joseph O’Brien also has a significant hand with five runners inside the cut-line, including leading contenders Trustyourinstinct and Defiantly.
The Irishman will also saddle Goodie Two Shoes, Sons And Lovers and James J Braddock.
O’Brien first won the Cup with Rekindling in 2017 and was the most recent northern hemisphere trainer to triumph when Twilight Payment won in 2020.
If The Euphrates does not accept, Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott will have only one Cup contender this year – evergreen veteran Vauban, who returns for his fourth attempt.
The nine-year-old gelding contested the Cup twice for legendary Irish trainer Willie Mullins, running 14th as favourite in 2023 and 11th the following year.
Transferred to Sydney-based Waterhouse-Bott, he finished a solid sixth in 2025.
AAP