Jockey Glen Boss rides the Australian mare, Makybe Diva, into the mounting yard after winning third consecutive Melbourne Cup at Flemington racecourse, in Melbourne, yesterday. - REUTERS
MELBOURNE (Reuters):
MAKYBE DIVA, brilliantly ridden by Glen Boss, won yesterday's 145th running of the Melbourne Cup to become the first horse to triumph three times in Australia's greatest race.
The seven-year-old mare enhanced her reputation as one of the country's greatest racehorses with a barnstorming finish in the gruelling A$5 million (US$3.8 million) 3,200-metre handicap at Flemington.
After settling midfield, Makybe Diva burst to the front 200m from the line then sprinted clear to a thunderous ovation from a crowd of 106,479 and a national audience of millions.
"What she did today was one of the greatest sporting events ever witnessed in Australia," said Makybe's trainer, Lee Freedman.
"Go and find the smallest child on this course and there will be the only example of a person who will live long enough to see that again."
Boss, who also rode Makybe Diva to victory in 2003 and 2004, burst into tears after returning to the winner's enclosure.
IMMORTAL
"She's immortal," said Boss, who broke his neck and was lucky not to have died after an horrific race fall in Macau in 2002.
"She's just such a gutsy, determined mare. I'm struggling for words."
Makybe Diva's owner, Croatian-born tuna fisherman Tony Santic, stunned the crowd by announcing he had decided to immediately retire the horse, allowing her to bow out on top.
"There is nothing left to prove," he said. "What she has done for me and the people around me and for the people of Australia, it's history and will never be forgotten."
Makybe Diva went into yesterday's race as clear favourite following one of the biggest betting plunges in Australian sporting history expected to top A$150 million. She paid A$3.60 to a A$1 stake for winning.
Freedman had threatened to scratch her if the surface was too hard, fearing she might injure herself, but agreed to let her run after inspecting the track just hours before the race.
On a clear and hot day, with the nation holding its collective breath, Makybe Diva never gave her legion of followers any cause for concern.
DEVASTATING SPRINT
Boss settled her midfield, one off the fence, after starting from a wide barrier and patiently threaded his way through the field before unleashing a devastating sprint in the last furlong that left her rivals in her wake.
On A Jeune, ridden by Darren Gauci, finished strongly to grab second, a length and a quarter behind the winner, with New Zealand derby winner Xcellent a further half length away, third.
"It just seemed like destiny," Boss said.
"It didn't matter what I did, it just seemed to be the right thing to do."
Freedman, who also won the Melbourne Cup with Tawriffic (1989), Subzero (1992) and Doriemus (1995), said Makybe Diva deserved to be mentioned alongside Phar Lap, a national hero during the Great Depression.
Phar Lap won 36 of his 50 career starts, including the 1930 Melbourne Cup, and has always been unchallenged as Australia's greatest racehorse.
"I don't want to run Phar Lap down, but I never saw Phar Lap win three Melbourne Cups," Freedman said.
GREATEST RACEHORSE
"She's the greatest racehorse I've ever seen. Not only the best one I've trained but what I've seen."
Makybe Diva has raced 36 times for 15 wins and A$14.4 million in prize money, easily a record for an Australian horse.
Apart from her three Melbourne Cups, the daughter of Irish stallion Desert King also won a Sydney Cup, an Australian Cup and a Cox Plate.
Only four other horses had won the Melbourne Cup twice before, since the race was first held in 1861: Archer (1861, 1862), Peter Pan (1932, 1934), Rain Lover (1968, 1969) and Think Big (1974, 1975).
