Knight’s Choice Lands Melbourne Cup for Voice Star
On Tuesday, 05.11, the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup, ‘The Race That Stops a Nation’, was won by the locally trained Knight’s Choice. Winning on his debut, the 90/1 scorer had only crossed the line ahead once during his 11-race career. However, his name is now etched on a Roll of Honour that features greats such as Phar Lap and Makybe Diva.
Knight’s Choice was the longest-priced Melbourne Cup winner since 2015. © GettyImages
Europe’s big hope, Vauban, finished only eleventh in the Group-1 handicap, although the first five horses’ home did have an overseas connection. Most notably, the Melbourne Cup’s winning rider, Robbie Dolan, is a third-generation jockey from County Kildare in Ireland. He moved to Australia in 2016 after riding five winners in his homeland and two (from six rides) in the UK as an apprentice.
While Dolan’s Melbourne Cup victory stands head-and-shoulders above any previous success, the 28-year-old was already a familiar name in many Australian households. His fame was not due to his exploits on the racecourse but to successful appearances in The Voice Australia 2022, where Rita Ora coached him as a contestant.
Robbie Dolan Hits the High Note
Despite the potential for a lucrative singing career, Dolan remained a jockey and had won 342 races in Australia before he partnered with Knight’s Choice to collect Tuesday’s £2.35 million winner’s prize. In a thrilling contest, the duo had sat off the pace before scything through the 23-runner Melbourne Cup field to snatch the honours by a short-head.
The excellent record of Japanese-trained horses on an international stage continued when Warp Speed filled the runner-up spot. The 25/1 shot earned his connections £588,235. Okita Soushi, bred and formerly trained in Ireland, bettered his 2023 Melbourne Cup finishing position by eight places to take third at UK bookmaker odds of 18/1.
The European connection continued into the minor placings with Zardozi, the product of a British-bred dam and sire, claiming fourth. Italian rider Andrea Atzeni, who was based in Britain for 16 seasons, was in the saddle.
Absurde, trained in Ireland by jumps racing legend Willie Mullins, fared best of the horses trained in Europe. Finishing fifth, beaten under two lengths, the six-year-old earned connections £122,994 – more than twice his reward for winning the County Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
£51 Punter Lands a Bet in a Million
Knight’s Choice was the longest-priced winner of the Melbourne Cup since 100/1 shot Prince of Penzance made Michelle Payne the first female jockey to win the famous race in 2015. With only outsiders in contention as the leaders approached the winning post, Flemington Racecourse’s massive race day crowd of 91,168 were relatively muted.
However, in one corner of Australia, a Ladbrokes online casino and sportsbook customer was celebrating a bet of a lifetime after they scooped a staggering A$3.2 million (£1,630,530) for correctly picking the first four home in the two-mile contest.
The punter, who staked A$100 (£51) with the famous British betting firm, successfully chose outsider Knight’s Choice ahead of Warp Speed, Okita Soushi and Zardozi. The UK’s online bookmakers collectively returned these horses on 90/1, 25/1, 18/1 and 13/1, resulting in massive dividends on all exotic bets.
