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Jamie Kah impresses with near-miss in Melbourne Cup as leading jockey cops ugly backlash

The female jockey fell just short of emulating Michelle Payne by winning the great race.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·5-min read

Jamie Kah has won praise around the horse racing world for her ride aboard Okita Soushi in the Melbourne Cup, after falling agonisingly short of emulating Michelle Payne by winning the great race. Kah hit the front in the final straight of the 3200m race, and dared to dream of becoming the first female jockey to win since Payne in 2015.

But her brave run ultimately fell short, as Knight's Choice and Warp Speed came over the top and left Keh and Okita Soushi in third. “Fantastic run. Couldn't have asked for anything more from the horse," she said afterwards. "Got me a bit excited at the 200 (metre mark). I thought he was going to hang on, but he's just a genuine one-pace horse, but couldn't ask for anything more of him.”

Jamie Kah, pictured here in the Melbourne Cup.
Jamie Kah hit the front in the Melbourne Cup but had to settle for third. Image: AAP/Channel 9

Despite the agonising near-miss, Kah won plenty of praise from punters. She was one of a record four female jockeys in the race that stops the nation, alongside Hollie Doyle, Rachel King and Winona Costin. Doyle came 14th on Sea King, while Costin and King were 21st and 22nd on Positivity and The Map respectively.

While a female jockey might not have won, Knight's Choice trainer Sheila Laxon did. There were six female trainers this year, and Laxon became the first to win the Cup twice after Ethereal saluted in 2001.

Robbie Doyle, pictured here winning the Melbourne Cup on Knight's Choice as Jamie Kah finished third.
Robbie Doyle won the Melbourne Cup on Knight's Choice as Jamie Kah finished third. (Photo by Reg Ryan/Racing Photos via Getty Images)

Champion trainer Chris Waller, who had leading contender Buckaroo as one of his five chances in the field, said it was "the most important thing" for racing to have strong female participation. "It shows that racing's a level playing field and no-one's better than anybody else in my (opinion)," Waller said.

"We're all even on a racetrack and that's what makes racing so unique. Age, sex, gender, nationality, religion ... there is no boundaries. We're all together and it's the United Nations of sport."

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While punters were singing Kah's praises, it wasn't the same treatment for Kerrin McEvoy. The three-time Melbourne Cup champion had a red-hot chance in 2024 on Absurde, and the race appeared to open up for him in the dying stages.

Robbie Dolan admitted after the race that he would have taken the same run on Knight's Choice that McEvoy did on Absurde, but ultimately McEvoy's poor start cost him. “I heard Kerrin giving me a call along the inside. I initially would have went for the run that he went for. He was going a little bit better than me," Dolan said.

“Once my horse spotted the gap and he sort of changed leads, and he just sort of picked up on me. Once I pulled the stick through, he found another gear again. He’s only a small little horse, but he gives his all every start, and that’s half the battle with him, I think and he’s proved a lot of people wrong.”

Josh Holt of Channel 10 was highly critical of McEvoy's ride and believed he would have won with a different tactic. “Why did Kerrin McEvoy go back to last on Absurde from barrier 7 with a question mark pending on the pace of the race??? Finishes 1 length off the winner in 5th,” Holt wrote on social media. “McEvoy will never sit on that horse again. Travesty beaten.”

Joao Moreira, who could only guide pre-race favourite Buckaroo to ninth, said: "Didn't have the best of runs because he actually went wide. It was hard to get in and we had to travel a little bit wide. The distance probably just stretched him too much. In the last little bit he started to get tired. He couldn't really run the distance."