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ESPN staff
Kerrin McEvoy claimed a third Melbourne Cup on Tuesday afternoon as Cross Counter charged down the Flemington straight to win Australia’s great race.
Cross Counter ran down Marmelo over the final 200 metres to claim victory with Prince of Arran third. Finche completed the first four.
McEvoy timed Cross Counter’s run perfectly after turning into the final straight well back in the field. But he couldn’t have hit the line any better, passing Marmelo 100 metres out from the winning post to take victory by a length.
A win for Marmelo would have completed a dream run for jockey Hugh Bowman, who has enjoyed a marvellous ride aboard superstar mare and four-time Cox Plate winner, Winx.
But it wasn’t to be, Cross Counter’s Melbourne Cup victory the first by an English horse while it also ended owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s long quest to win the “race that stops a nation”.
“We’ve campaigned over the last three years now and we’ve been competitive, but we’ve always learnt what horse we thought was going to be competitive on the big day,” Appleby told Channel 7.
“Coming into today this horse ticked a lot of boxes. But Kerrin, I’m just delighted, that’s some ride, I saw him going down the back there…the way he angled out when making his ride; I just thought, turning in, if he finds the gaps, this horse has got the gears to pick up.”