Melham matches Payne’s historic Melbourne Cup feat
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • November 6th, 2025 2:00 PM
Ten years after Michelle Payne became the first woman to ride a Melbourne Cup winner, Jamie Melham wrote her own chapter in the history of the great race on Half Yours, the only Australian-bred horse up against an eclectic international field.
Melham had already made history last month as the first of her gender to win the Caulfield Cup, but partnering Half Yours on Tuesday as the 19th horse to complete the famous double was on another emotion-charged level.
“I’ve just won the Melbourne Cup!” the 29-year-old exclaimed to Flemington outrider Billy Slater as she attempted to gather her thoughts moments after crossing the finish line nearly three lengths clear of the Joseph O’Brien-trained Goodie Two Shoes.
“This is what we do it for, why we get up at 4am. For the last 15 years I’ve been in this industry and I’ve had an amazing year, got married and now this.”
Melham’s husband Ben also rode in Tuesday’s A$10 million race – making them the first married couple to do so – partnering Kiwi-bred veteran Smokin’ Romans to make the early running before settling behind the pace, and then inadvertently playing a part in his wife’s victory as his mount faded out of contention.
“I waited to the 400 and I couldn’t wait any longer,” the winning jockey said. “When a horse is travelling as well as he was it doesn’t matter what size the gaps were, I had no say, the horse just took me through them.
“I could see Ben ahead of me and I just said ‘Out of my way Ben’ and we were off.”
Melham’s inward path left one more even narrower gap between horses to negotiate, and Half Yours was through and away, hitting the lead at the landmark clock tower and putting the result to bed.
The minor placings were completed by the Ciaron Maher-trained English-bred Middle Earth in third place, Chris Waller’s Irish-bred River Of Stars, and Torranzino, the Geelong Cup winner and one of two NZ-breds in the field. The Tarzino gelding was right in the firing line midway through the home straight before battling into fifth place.
Not only did Half Yours complete a landmark year for Melham, but so too for his father-and-son training partners, fellow South Australians Tony and Calvin McEvoy. The McEvoy family is steeped in South Australian racing history, which includes Tony’s nephew Kerrin – and brother-in-law of Michelle Payne – having ridden Melbourne Cup winner Brew as an apprentice 25 years ago and another two since.
McEvoy Snr, who was inducted to the South Australian Racing Hall Of Fame in August, rode a South Australian Oaks winner as a jockey and got his opportunity as a trainer with the Hayes family’s Lindsay Park. Wins in that role included the 2006 Cox Plate with Fields Of Omagh and after establishing his own premiership-winning stable in Adelaide, he and his son relocated to Victoria, setting up at Ballarat in 2022.
The McEvoys linked up with Melham – known then as Jamie Kah – when she was dominating jockey ranks in her home state and that continued when she relocated to Victoria and was an instant hit, setting a premiership-winning record of 105 wins in 2020-21.
The back-story to the horse that has elevated his jockey and trainers into Australian racing folklore is intriguing in itself. Half Yours was originally owned by the Colin McKenna-led Halo Racing, having been bred by the obscure Irish-bred St Jean from the Desert King mare La Gazelle, notably a half-sister to the 3200m Flemington winner Moudre.
St Jean was by Teofilo, himself the sire of 2023 Caulfield-Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight and 2018 and 2020 Melbourne Cup winners Cross Counter and Twilight Payment. St Jean’s six-win racing career began in Ireland, continued in Australia and ended in New Zealand, where he won the Gr.3 City of Auckland Cup in 2017 when trained by then Ruakaka-based Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs.
St Jean retired to stud in Victoria, former stockbroker Grant Dwyer taking a shine to him and standing him for the budget fee of A$3,000. In his first eight seasons he covered just over 100 mares and according to Arion Pedigrees statistics, only 22 of them have raced.
His 2024 book slumped to five mares, but with Half Yours’ burst to prominence his fee has been increased to A$10,000 and, one would expect, so have the numbers.
Amongst those to initially support St Jean at stud were Halo Racing’s Colin and Janice McKenna, the latter credited with breeding Half Yours. When Colin McKenna, one of Jamie Melham’s most ardent supporters, died last year, the decision was made to reduce the family’s racing stocks, which included Half Yours.
As the winner of two of his five starts for Ciaron Maher, Half Yours was keenly sought in the online auction and the telling final bid of A$305,000 was lodged by Calvin McEvoy. From his new quarters Half Yours has now won six of his 10 starts, and remarkably has raced every month since making that start in March.
Leading up to his landmark double he won the Listed Caloundra Cup in Queensland in July, the Gr.3 Naturalism Stakes at Caulfield in September and two weeks before the Caulfield Cup he finished fourth in the Gr.1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington.
Of the many angles to this remarkable story, the one that will be retold most will be of the pony-loving kid from South Australia who from her earliest days as a jockey made a habit of breaking records where ever she competed.
That was not without having to overcome adversities, some in her control and others not. Melham’s career hit a major stumbling block in 2021 when a group that included her future husband were found to have broken Covid lockdown rules.
A subsequent suspension was quashed on appeal, but even more serious was a race fall at Flemington in March 2023 which left her with a brain-bleed and multiple fractures. The long road back included suggestions that she had lost her spark, and there was more than a touch of poignancy to her own reflection that last month’s Caulfield Cup win completed her return to the top.
The most telling of all 29-year-old Melham’s records was the one she set at Flemington on Tuesday as the first female jockey to complete the famous Cups double and guarantee her place in Australian racing history.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to RaceForm and get your copy delivered each week.
