Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Football
Netball
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Half Yours wins the 2025 Melbourne Cup
Shayne Hope, AAP • November 4th, 2025 5:15 pm
Jamie Melham | Photo: AAP
Jamie Melham has created history by riding Half Yours to victory in the Melbourne Cup.
A decade after Michelle Payne became the first female jockey to win the race that stops a nation, close friend Melham became the first to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double.
Half Yours burst clear in a thrilling finish at Flemington for father-son training duo Tony and Calvin McEvoy.
Two-time winner Joseph O'Brien's Goodie Two Shoes was second, with Ciaron Maher-trained Middle Earth third.
French raider Presage Nocturne was smashed into favouritism before the race but did not place.
Melham steered through several gaps, including one to most past husband Ben Melham on Smokin' Romans, to secure the win.
"I wanted to ride him as quiet as I could and at the 400 ... I had to let him go," Melham said.
"There was a tight gap and I said, 'Move over Ben, I'm coming through'.
"The next gap was extremely tight and I had no say. My horse just took me through it.
"Then he had to produce the finish and the team have just got him the fittest I've ever seen this horse."
Half Yours was the only Australian-bred horse in this year's capacity Cup field of 24, with seven nations represented.
Half Yours comes home strong | Photo: AAP
The son of bargain-priced sire St Jean became the 13th horse in history to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double.
Melham paid tribute to Tony and Calvin McEvoy, as well as her late grandfather, who passed away after witnessing the Half Yours' Caulfield Cup win last month.
Rain threatened to dampen spirits on Tuesday, but the Cup was run on a track that had been upgraded to a soft 5 rating.
Payne, who rode 100-1 shot Prince Of Penzance to a famous victory in 2015, featured in the pre-race ceremony and was reduced to tears after Melham's victory.
"I've got tears in my eyes," Payne said on Nine.
"It's just the most incredible feeling and for Jamie, who deserves it, it just couldn't be better."
Earlier, red-hot jockey Mark Zahra continued his outstanding Cup carnival form with two wins and a place in Tuesday's first four races.
It took Zahra's tally to six wins and three places in 10 rides across the carnival, after he claimed the Group 1 Victoria Derby (Observer) and Coolmore Stud Stakes (Tentyris) among his four consecutive wins on Saturday.
Fellow star hoop James McDonald, who rode Pallaton to beat Zahra's Street Artist in race four on Cup Day, pledged all his prize-money percentage from the meeting to the Tom Prebble fundraiser.
Prebble, the son of former champion jockey Brett Prebble, is in a wheelchair and on Saturday revealed a diagnosis of paraplegia after his fall at Warrnambool in September
