But it is former mentor and loyal backer McKenna who still remains closest to her heart. He died during last year’s spring carnival.
Melham with the co-trainers of Half Yours, Calvin and Tony McEvoy.Credit: Getty Images
“After the ride, when I pulled up, I looked up and I had asked him, ‘Make sure you open a gap for me’, and he did,” she said. “He would be proud. If he was here still, and he didn’t own it, he would still be proud.”
The gap did open for Melham at the right time. Rival Adelaide River set a cracking pace out in front, leaving Half Yours buried away in the pack, but when they turned for home she was able to find the gap she had wished for, beating home outsiders River Of Stars and Valiant King.
“Janice [McKenna] texted me yesterday and said she’d make sure Col would open those gaps for me, and he did, so thank you, Col,” Melham said of McKenna’s wife. “Just saying ‘Caulfield Cup’ is going to make me cry. I’ve had an incredible career and ridden 17 group ones now, but that major has obviously eluded me, and I just wanted to get one. But now I want maybe three more, maybe a Melbourne Cup. This horse is going to run the trip out.”
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Incredibly, McKenna had bred Half Yours, who was trained by Ciaron Maher before being sold to the McEvoys after the popular Warrnambool owner’s death.
A throng of rapturous owners were caught in the moment, needing an usher to remind them several times to move out of the mounting yard to allow the horses back into the enclosure.
“Bring on Tuesday week, you beauty,” one owner shouted jubilantly, perhaps having lost track of time. The Melbourne Cup is the week after.
The Caulfield feature has a special connection to part-owner Neville Smith, 64. His father used to come watch every year.
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“I love this race,” Smith said. “It’s not the two-miler but it’s the next one down.”
The horse was formerly part of the powerful Maher stable. Maher, in Sydney for the Everest meeting, was in an online bidding war with the McEvoys after the McKenna family put Half Yours up for sale last November. He pushed the price out to $305,000. Saturday’s winner’s cheque is worth $3 million.
“He’s a good judge of horseflesh, Col,” Smith said.
The stable’s national assistant trainer Jack Turnbull was magnanimous in defeat. He was thrilled for his friend, Calvin.
“It’s an achievement for any horse to win a Caulfield Cup,” Turnbull said. “Fair play to Tony and Calvin McEvoy to condition the horse the way they did. It’s great to see, it’s good for racing. It’s an all-round good story.”
Half Yours storms home to win the Caulfield Cup.Credit: Getty Images
Melham’s greatest gift is her ability to meld with the horse. She can get them to jump cleanly from the barriers and travel calmly during a race, and she is an expert judge of pace. Trainers say they win for her because they are happy.
“When, mid-race, that horse took off [Adelaide River], I thought this is not ideal,” Tony McEvoy said.
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“If someone panics, it dishevels everything, but Jamie kept her head, kept her horse in galloping room, and he got into his rhythm and did the rest. I’m looking forward to watching it again.”
Melham was raised in the Adelaide Hills. Her parents, Olympic skaters John and Karen Kah, only learned to ride when they moved away from international competition and into family life during the 1990s.
Melham cut her teeth on miniature ponies, often sleeping alongside them on the family property, before getting a taste of thoroughbreds as a 14-year-old.
“I had never felt anything like it,” she says. “Just to let a horse go that fast – it was this rush.”
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