Jim Cassidy: Thank you Kiwi, and thank you Melbourne Cup
Jim Cassidy • November 2nd, 2024 9:02 AM
They call it the race that stops a nation, but for me the Melbourne Cup is the race that changed my life.
As confident a young fella as I was back then, not even I could have imagined what that win on Kiwi way back in 1983 would do for me.
I was a 20-year-old apprentice from NZ, who most Aussies had never heard of. Few even knew who Kiwi was, either. He’d won the Wellington Cup earlier in the year, but I don’t think too many Aussies took him seriously.
It’s now history he “did a Kiwi” – which has become racing language – and stormed home from last to win easily.
That win, and everything that went with it, made me a household name. It paved the way for me make Australia home, win more than 100 Group 1 races, ride some great champions and have the honour of being inducted into both the Australian and NZ Racing Halls of Fame.
Thank you Kiwi and thank you Melbourne Cup.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the replay, but every time I do, I marvel at how far from the leaders Kiwi was and the way he just steamrolled them.
At the time in the race, I knew I was a long way back, but I always had faith in him. He felt amazing all the way and he’d come from a mile back to win that Wellington Cup.
That feeling moments after the race. Returning to scale on him in front of what seemed a sea of people. I’d never seen anything like it. Imagine being a young racing loving kid and living out that fantasy.
To do it again 14 years later, at the height of my career and in such different fashion, was remarkable.
It’s largely because it was on such a special horse in Might And Power and we led throughout, which everyone wants to tell you is almost impossible in a Melbourne Cup.
They took him on at the 1200m, again at the 600m and he was still able to fight-off a great horse in Doriemus, a horse who’d already won the Cup himself, and win by a nose. He did things 99.9 per cent of horses couldn’t do.
I’ll never forget hearing Greg Hall (Doriemus’ jockey) roar and punch the air after the line. He thought he’d beaten me, but I wasn’t so sure.
Bringing Might And Power back to scale was up with the greatest moments I’ve had because he was a real people’s horse, I wanted to share the moment with the crowd, just as I did when he won the Cox Plate the following year.
In retirement, I’ve been fortunate to be a Melbourne Cup ambassador and going all around the world and seeing the joy and passion the Cup trophy itself stirs, makes me feel so privileged to have twice been part of its amazing history.
Other races have emerged and innovation is great and important, but there is only one Melbourne Cup and whoever wins it on Tuesday will feel that and know that.
Who would I like to ride? Buckeroo is the one. He’ll get back in the field, not as far as Kiwi did, and the way he finished off Caulfield really impressed me. If he runs out the 3200m, which I think he will, he’s clearly the one to beat.
In today’s Derby, if El Castello has any luck from the wide draw, he looks too good for them.
Jim Cassidy is an Entain ambassador
